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Author: 


Haskins,  Charles  Waldo 


Title: 


How  to  keep  household 
accounts 

Place: 

New  York 

Date: 

1903 


MASTER    NEGATIVE   # 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
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Haskins,  Charles  Waldo,  1852-1903. 

How  to  keep  lioiiseliold  accounts ;  a  manual  of  family 
finance,  by  C.  ^V.  Haskins  ...  New  York  and  London, 
Haiper  &  brotliers,  1903. 

V,  rli  p.,  1  l,  116,  ill  p.     forms.     17.^'". 


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PRESENTED  BY 

THE  ALUMNI  FUND 
COMMITTEE 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 

CLIFFORD  GRAY,  '02S. 

1924 


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HOW    TO    KEEP 
HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

A    MANUAL     OF     FAMILY     FINANCE 


BY 


C.  W.  HASKINS.  L.H.M.,  C.P.A. 

Late  Dean  of  the  New  York  University  School  of 
Commerce,  Accounts,  and  Finance 


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NEW   YORK    AND    LONDON 

HARPER  &   BROTHERS   PUBLISHERS 

1903 


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j4/i  rig^hts  reserved. 
Published  April,  1903. 


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TO 

MY  DAUGHTER 

RUTH 

I   DEDICATE  THIS   LITTLE   BOOK 


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PREFACE 

THIS  little  book  is  not  a  treatise  on 
book-keeping.  It  is  less,  and  it  is 
more.  Far  less,  because  it  treats  of  but 
one  of  many  thousand  applications  of 
that  useful  art;  and  more,  because,  be- 
ginning with  the  very  simplest  exposition 
of  general  principles,  it  endeavors  to  un- 
fold, as  pleasantly  as  may  be,  a  science  of 
accountancy,  and  to  indicate  its  relations, 
in  the  sphere  of  domestic  economy,  to 
finance,  administration,  and  the  other  sci- 
ences of  social  life. 

In  view  of  the  present  unsatisfactory 
condition  of  instruction  in  domestic  ac- 
countancy, it  has  been  thought  well  to 


1%    I 


I 

I 


I 


PREFACE 

employ,  as  far  as  possible,  the  historical 
method  of  teaching.  The  story  form,  it 
is  hoped,  will  lend  interest  to  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  field  and  to  the  laying 
down  of  the  bases  upon  which  the  ac- 
countancy of  the  house  is  built. 

Very  little  has  been  as  yet  written 
upon  this  important  subject  of  household 
accounting.  Especially  is  this  true  of 
books  in  our  own  language.  To  a  few 
Italian,  German,  and  French  writers, 
however,  a  general  acknowledgment  is 
here  due  for  material  assistance  in  the 
effort  to  produce  a  manual  of  domestic 
money  matters  which  may  prove  of  prac- 
tical utility  in  the  administration  of  the 
modem  home. 


r 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Domestic  Economy i 

II.  Household  Accounts g 

III.  The  Home  Account-book 34 

IV.  The  Balance-sheet 57 

V.  Budget,  Vouchers,  and  Inventory     .  66 

VI.  The  Bank  Account 91 


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HOW  TO    KEEP 
HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 


DOMESTIC   ECONOMY 


I 


THE  oldest  existing  literary  work  on 
household  management  is  the  Eco- 
nomics  of  Xenophon.  From  this  charm- 
ing Greek  classic  —  of  which  there  are 
many  good  translations  —  we  have  our 
very  words  economy  and  economics ;  and 
for  twenty-three  hundred  years  it  has 
held  its  own  as  the  code,  the  breviary, 
the  book  of  books,  of  all  thrift.  Aristotle 
adopted  its  title  for  one  of  his  own  trea- 
tises ;  Cicero  made  a  Latin  rendering  of  it 


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HOW   TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

in  his  youth;  and  the  only  other  really 
great  book  on  the  same  subject,  the 
Italian  Delia  Famiglia^  was  written  in 
imitation  of  it. 

The  Italian  work,  founded  upon  that 
of  Xenophon,  is  variously  ascribed  to 
the  celebrated  architect  Alberti,  whose 
name  is  closely  associated  with  that  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  and  to  Pandolfini, 
another  Florentine  of  the  early  Renais- 
sance. It  very  closely  follows  its  original, 
even  to  the  incidents  of  the  introductory 
prayer  and  the  later  advice  to  forego  the 
use  of  face  powders.  It  takes  the  yoimg 
bride  over  the  house ;  gives  her  the  keys ; 
teaches  her  the  oversight  of  servants 
and  the  right  ordering  of  all  her  affairs ; 
makes  honesty  her  chief  virtue;  inducts 
her  into  the  science  of  family  finance; 
in  a  word,  develops  her  from  a  shy  girl, 
brought  up  in  careful  seclusion,  to  the 


I 


• 


DOMESTIC  ECONOMY 

perfect  mistress  of  the  household,  and 
sets  before  us,  in  a  well-drawn  picture, 
one  of  the  ideal  characters  of  early- 
Italian  literature. 

The  Florentines  became  noted  for  their 
orderliness  in  the  affairs  of  domestic 
economy;  and  when  modem  book-keep- 
ing, invented  by  a  monk,  was  introduced 
into  their  household  matters,  the  women 
we  are  told  "are  supposed  to  have  been 
in  this  respect  model  helpmates  to  their 
husbands." 

About  twenty-five  hundred  books,  in 
the  English  language  alone,  have  been 
classed  in  one  way  or  another  xmder  the 
general  head  of  domestic  economy.  A 
very  great  number  of  them  are  handy 
collections  of  recipes  of  various  kinds; 
many  are  books  of  practical  advice  to  the 
members  of  the  household;  some  are 
special  discussions  of  the  application  of 

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HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

particular  departments  of  human  knowl- 
edge to  family  life;  and  others  are  com- 
mendable and  often  successful  attempts 
to  develop  or  elucidate  one  or  more 
of  the  administrative  functions  of  the 
housewife.  A  limited  number  of  these 
books  are  of  scientific  aspect,  and  of  the 
highest  value  within  their  sphere ;  and  all, 
no  doubt,  would  be  of  use  in  a  scientific 
treatment  of  the  whole  subject.  Were 
some  genius,  however,  to  erect,  out  of 
the  mass  of  their  material,  a  science  of 
domestic  economy  having  its  own  iden- 
tity and  its  own  broad  comprehensive- 
ness, a  few  staring  gaps,  it  is  feared, 
would  be  left  in  the  superstructure.  On 
the  financial  front,  certainly,  the  absence 
of  accountancy  would  be  noticeable.  To 
supply  this  lack  is  the  object  of  the 
present  volume. 

Educational  leaders  and  reformers  in 


' 


DOMESTIC    ECONOMY 

various  countries  have  endeavored,  not 
wholly  without  encouragement  and  suc- 
cess, to  introduce  domestic  economy  into 
their  national  systems  of  instruction.  As 
in  the  case  of  our  literature  of  the  subject, 
their  actual  teaching,  thus  far,  has  been 
largely  confined  to  particular  branches 
of  housekeeping.  Their  profession,  how- 
ever, has  induced  a  careful  study  of  pro- 
found works  on  female  education;  has 
led  them  to  a  lively  interchange  of  ideas ; 
and  has  kept  alive  their  scientific  as- 
pirations. Thus,  aggressively,  they  have 
pushed  on,  enlarging  and  unifying  their 
courses  of  study,  until  a  few  of  them  have 
gained  for  domestic  economy  a  sort  of 
permissive  foothold  on  the  lecture  plat- 
forms of  certain  universities.  Their  pro- 
grammes, if  combined,  would  suggest  a 
consideration  of  the  household,  its  moral, 
intellectual,  social,  and  economic  welfare, 


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HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 

and  its  organization  and  general  admin- 
istration; woman,  her  sphere,  her  need 
of  directive  intelligence,  and  the  edu- 
cation of  girls;  the  house,  its  location 
with  reference  to  business,  health,  econo- 
my, and  general  convenience,  and  its  in- 
terior arrangement ;  heat,  light,  and  venti- 
lation ;  furniture,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  hygiene,  art,  and  practical  use,  its 
disposition  about  the  house,  its  freedom 
from  dirt,  and  its  repair  and  maintenance ; 
carpets,  draperies,  and  the  like ;  clothing 
and  toilet  articles,  their  choice,  cost,  and 
care ;  foods,  their  varieties,  succession  by 
seasons,  cost,  use  according  to  one's  age, 
occupation,  and  condition  of  health,  with 
rules  for  the  detection  of  adulteration; 
care  of  the  sick;  and  the  advantages  of 
keeping  down  expenses. 

The  high  school  for  young  women  at 
Geneva    teaches,    both    in    its    literary 


'I 


DOMESTIC  ECONOMY 

department  and  in  its  pedagogical  sec- 
tion, the  principles  of  domestic  economy, 
the  role  of  the  mistress,  the  need  of 
professional  teaching,  care  of  furniture, 
clothing,  linen,  washing,  light,  heat,  ali- 
mentation, provisions,  accounts,  budget 
of  receipts  and  expenses,  savings,  and 
insurance. 

A  programme  of  domestic  economy 
laid  before  a  congress  of  educators  at 
Brussels  is  of  value  for  the  prominence 
it  gives  to  a  suggested  course  of  family 
finance,  and  is  interesting  for  the  place 
upon  the  faculty  accorded  to  *'Le  Bon- 
homme  Richard."  Its  concluding  head 
is: 

**  Money  and  work.  Receipts  and  expenses. 
How  to  make  the  most  of  one's  knowledge  and 
talents.  Gaining  and  keeping,  a  double  profit ; 
temperance  in  the  number  of  articles  desired; 
how  to  buy;  knowledge  of  the  price  of  pro- 

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HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

visions,  of  cloth,  of  linen,  of  calico,  of  utensils, 
and  the  like.  Avarice  and  prodigality.  Ac- 
counts of  the  household.  The  memorandum- 
book  and  the  monthly  examination.  The 
superfluous  and  the  necessary.  Buying  on 
credit;  danger  of  debt;  honesty.  Promptness 
in  repairing  or  replacing  articles  broken,  de- 
teriorated, or  worn  out.  The  toilet.  Luxury, 
good  taste,  and  simplicity.  The  maxims  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  *Poor  Richard':  wise  em- 
ployment of  time.     The  habit  of  taking  notes. ' ' 


f 


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II 


HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

IT  is  clearly  evident  that  domestic 
economy,  or  household  manage- 
ment, is  very  largely  a  matter  of  money 
and  money's  worth,  and  that  it  marks 
out  an  important  field  of  financial  ac- 
countancy. 

Nor  is  this  financial  aspect  of  the  sub- 
ject in  any  wise  confined,  as  we  are  too 
apt  to  imagine,  to  that  "exterior"  de- 
partment of  administration  which  is  to- 
day included  under  the  head  of  poHtical 
economy,  or  economics.  All  who  have 
ever  treated  this  phase  of  the  subject 
have  contended  that  finance  and  account- 
ancy sustain  important  relations  to  wel- 

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fare  in  the  ''interior"  management,  to 
which  we  now  more  particularly  apply 
the  term  domestic  economy,  and  which 
lies  within  the  special  province  of  the 
woman. 

The  story  told  by  Josephus,  and  less 
fully  by  Esdras,  of  the  Jewish  captive 
who  argued,  in  a  prize  essay  read  before 
Darius  and  his  princes  and  grandees,  that 
the  care  and  preservation  of  all  house- 
hold business  is  dependent  upon  wom- 
an's administration,  shows  that  such  an 
argument  could  be  understood  and  ap- 
preciated throughout  the  whole  Persian 
empire,  from  India  to  the  Danube. 

To  the  Greek,  as  may  be  seen  in  Xen- 
ophon,  the  home  interior  was  a  depart- 
ment of  economic  administration,  de- 
manding of  woman  a  very  fair  measure 
of  business  ability.  Aristophanes,  in  his 
comic  argument  that  women  should  be 

ID 


also  at  the  head  of  all  outside  affairs,  says 
that  they  are  already  taking  care  of 
everything  within,  as,  from  the  days  of 
old,  they  have  been  always  doing,  and 
adds  that  for  ways  and  means  there's 
nothing  cleverer  than  a  woman;  that  as 
for  negotiation,  she's  hard  indeed  to  beat 
or  cheat.  And  Aristotle,  borrowing  the 
time-worn  figure  of  the  Danaides,  says 
that  a  domestic  economy  which  does  not 
join  to  the  exterior  talent  for  acquisition 
the  interior  one  of  managing  and  util- 
izing, and  especially  of  calculating  ex- 
penses so  that  they  shall  not  exceed  the 
receipts,  is  like  the  sieve,  or  the  bucket 
pierced  with  holes,  with  which  one  tries 
to  carry  water. 

The  Latins  were  a  calculating,  adminis- 
trative people ;  and  the  matron  of  Rome, 
freer  than  her  sister  of  Athens,  and  bear- 
ing undisputed  sway  in  her  household, 


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HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

guided  her  affairs  frugally  and  with  taste, 
and  enriched  the  family  treasury  by  her 
business-like  activity  and  exactness. 

The  woman  of  the  Middle  Ages,  wheth- 
er lady  of  the  manor,  mistress  of  the 
city  residence,  or  guardian  of  the  humble 
cottage  of  the  peasant,  was  remarkable 
for  business  ability.  The  Florentine  imi- 
tation of  the  Economics  of  Xenophon,  al- 
ready referred  to,  was  one  of  the  most 
popular  books  of  the  Renaissance.  A 
hundred  years  later,  Olivier  de  Serres, 
a  French  writer  on  rural  and  household 
affairs,  could  still  describe  the  mistress 
of  the  mansion  as  Xenophon  had  de- 
scribed her;  and  Montaigne,  avowing 
that  he  had  no  concern  with  business, 
and  was  glad  that  ''  women  do  find  de- 
light in  managing  affairs,''  could  safely 
relinquish  to  his  wife  the  planting  and 
reaping  of  his   crops,    the  oversight  of 

12 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

his  masons,  the  negotiating  of  bargams 
for  him,  the  collection  of  debts  due  him, 
and  the  keeping  of  his  accounts,  while 
he,  as  one  of  his  countrymen  has  said, 
'*  dawdled  through  Italy  at  his  leisure.'' 

Writing  of  woman's  administration  as 
tmderstood  in  the  sixteenth  century,  Mon- 
taigne says:  ''The  most  useful  and  hon- 
orable science  and  occupation  for  the 
mother  of  a  family  is  that  of  domestic 
economy.  I  see  many  who  are  avari- 
cious, but  of  real  economists  I  find  but 
few.  This,  indeed,  is  the  mistress  qual- 
ity— the  one  that  should  be  sought  above 
all  others,  the  dowry  that  will  either  ruin 
or  save  our  establishments." 

Still  later,  two  women,  allied  by  mar- 
riage to  the  family  of  La  Rochefoucauld, 
gave  to  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  examples  of  the  wisest  ad- 
ministration  of  extensive  country   and 

13 


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HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

city  establishments.  The  former,  Jeanne 
de  Schomberg,  Duchess  of  Liancourt, 
drew  up  a  scheme  of  administration  in 
which  we  discover  a  broad  conception  of 
family  finance ;  and  the  latter,  Augustine 
de  Montmirail,  Duchess  of  Doudeauville, 
not  only  administered  her  own  estate, 
but  brought  the  large  hereditary  prop- 
erty of  her  exiled  husband  through  the 
Reign  of  Terror,  and  ''left  the  family 
of  La  Rochefoucauld  in  the  unusual  posi- 
tion of  landed  proprietors  when  nearly  all 
the  French  nobility  were  irretrievably 
ruined/' 

A  close  view  of  early  domestic  ac- 
cotmting  may  be  had  in  many  of  the  old 
'* household  books'*  of  the  women  of 
England.  ''We  read,"  says  an  English 
writer,  "of  the  abundant  hospitality  of 
the  great  houses  of  past  days ;  but  refer- 
ence to  books  like  those  which  record  the 

14 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

household  expenses  of  Northumberland 
or  the  Countess  of  Hardwick  show  how 
carefully  every  expense  was  regulated  by 
the  heads  of  the  family.  The  famous 
'  Bess  of  Hardwicke '  was  a  careful  house- 
keeper. '  Avoiding  superfluities  or  waste 
of  anything'  is  to  be  the  rule  of  her 
establishment,  as  laid  down  in  the  house- 
hold books  which  have  come  down  to 
us;  and  it  is  curious,  in  perusing  docu- 
ments like  these,  to  observe  how  careful 
our  ancestors  were  to  look  into  every 
trifle  of  their  domestic  expenditure." 

What  is  still  more  curious,  however, 
and  worthy  of  all  admiration,  is  the  sur- 
prising perfection  of  result  obtained  with 
the  very  primitive  appliances  at  their 
disposal.  The  books  were  hardly  more 
than  diaries;  the  entries  were  mere 
memorandums,  and  were  written,  for  a 
long  time,  in  a  crabbed  Latin;  and  the 

15 


\\\ 


\l 


•r-^-^'^m^.. 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

amounts  were  expressed,  up  to  a  late 
period,  in  the  old  Roman  numerals,  some- 
times in  columns,  oftener  run  in  with 
the  text,  and  almost  impossible  of  addi- 
tion except  by  a  roundabout  method  of 
figuring  or  with  the  aid  of  the  abacus, 
a  device  somewhat  similar  to  the  count- 
ing-frame of  our  kindergartens.  So  ut- 
terly unscientific,  indeed,  was  the  whole 
scheme,  and  so  dependent  upon  con- 
trivance for  the  accomplishment  of  any 
general  result,  that  men  of  great  reputa- 
tion— as  in  the  Rules  of  Saint  Robert, 
''that  the  good  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Saint 
Robert  the  Greathead,  made  for  •  the 
Countess  of  Lincoln'' — gave  themselves 
up  to  the  writing  of  chapters  on  ''How 
you  may  know  to  compare  the  accounts/' 
The  household  book  of  the  ducal 
family  of  Buckingham  is  written  in  the 
abbreviated  Latin  of  the  year  1507,  the 

16 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

numbers  being  expressed  in  Roman  let- 
ters incorporated  with  the  reading-mat- 
ter. The  following  is  one  of  the  shorter 
paragraphs ;  it  records  the  expenditure  at 
Newbury  for  "  the  dinner  of  the  Lord  with 
his  household;  dined,  gentry,  twenty; 
valets,  fourteen;  gargons,  twenty-nine'': 

Die  D'nica  ZXX^^  die  Janu,  ib'm. 
Panet.  ex  it'm  ex  empcon.  xxxiij  pan.  p'c. 

xvj^.  ob. 
Cellar,  expend,  it'm  ex  empcon.  ij  pich.  vini 


;d 


gasc.  p  c.  XV] 
ButtilL  exp.  it'm  ex  empcon.  xv  lag.  cervis. 


•  •    •  •  • , 


pen  11]^.  ix*^. 
Coquin.  exp.  it'm  ex  empc.  j  qrt.  cam.  boum 

p'cij  iiijs.  iiij^.  vitul.  p'c.  ij^.  viij^. 
Achates  ex  in  ijb^T  porcellis  xij^.  ij  capon  xiiij<^. 

ij  cunictis  xvj^.  j  curlew,  v^.  ix  redshankes 

vj^.  v  disc,  butir  v^.  ovis  gallin.  iiij^.  herbis 

et  farin.  aven.  ij*^. 
AmL  &  Camer.  ex.  de  fagottes  xxviij.  p'cij 


13*.  111]'*. 


17 


i'l 


I 


■r  '■ 


^  4 

-5 


i\ 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

[Translation.] 

Sunday,  30th  January. 
Pantry,  Spent,  from  purchase  there,  t,^ 
loaves  price  idYzd.  Cellar ,  Spent,  from  pur- 
chase there,  2  pitchers  of  Gascony  wine  price 
i6d.  Buttery,  Spent,  from  purchase  there,  15 
flagons  of  ale  price  35.  gd.  Kitchen,  Spent, 
from  purchase  there,  i  quarter  of  beef  price 
45.  ^d.,  veal  price  25.  8g?.  Fresh  Provisions, 
Spent  for  two  pigs  i2d,,  2  capons  i^d,,  2 
rabbits  i6d.,  i  curlew  $d.,  9  redshanks  6d,,  5 
dishes  of  butter  5<i.,  eggs  ^d.,  herbs  and  oat- 
meal 2d,  Hall  and  Chamber,  Spent,  28  faggots 
price  2s.  4c/. 

Mistress  Kytson,  of  Hengrave,  widow 
of  a  wealthy  London  merchant  of  the 
time  of  Elizabeth,  kept  her  accounts  in 
English,  but  in  the  old  memorandum 
form.  Her  outlay  for  one  day,  while 
travelling  to  the  City  in  the  winter  of 
1574,  is  thus  entered  in  her  household 
book: 

18 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

Wednesday  afternoon,  December  ist,  my 
m^^  entering  London,  p^  until  she  was  en- 
tered the  City,  viz,  for  her  dyett  w*^  all  her 
men  in  that  space,  \]s,  iKd. — for  the  horses 
meet,  lviiJ5.  m]d. — for  firing,  iJ5.  ixJ. 

In  reward  at  Mr.  BedaFs  house,  where  my 
m^^^  lodged  the  first  night,  y]s.  viijd. 

In  rewarde  to  the  musicians  at  Ware,  iiJ5. 

For  the  hire  of  certain  horses  to  draw  my 
mF^^  cooch  from  Whitsworth  to  London, 
XXVJ5.   viijJ. 

Delivered  to  my  m^^^  ^q  gj^^  i^y  ^j^^  ^^y  j^^ 

her  little  purse,  xx5. 

To  the  carrier  for  the  carriage  of  sundry 
things,  amounting  to  Ixxx.  c.  wayght,  at  i]s. 
iiijd.  le  c. — ix/i.  vi^.  viijd. 

To  the  hire  of  certain  men  to  attend  upon 
his  cart  by  the  waye,  being  charged  with 
plate,  iiJ5. 

If  we  compare  with  these  extracts  a 
few  lines  taken,  say,  from  the  ''booke  of 
the  howshold''  of  Lord  and  Lady  North, 
1577,  and  endeavor  to  foot  the  figures 

19 


I  i 


1 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

Up,  we  shall  wonder  why,  unless  in  blind 
imitation  of  the  new  ''Italian  method,'' 
columns  have  been  introduced  at  all; 
and  we  shall  admire  the  administrative 
mind  that  could  base  a  budget  upon  a 
book  containing  '  *  A ' '  cartload,  * '  2 ' '  horse- 
loads,  and  '*v"  livres  in  a  single  line: 


Gammonds  of 

bacon 

•  •  • 

Vllj 

XXX5. 

Larde 

xiij  lbs 

viiJ5. 

viijd. 

Neats     tongs, 

feet,  and 

udd^ 

xi^.  i 

liiJ5. 

•  •  •  •  « 
iiija. 

Butter 

iiijC  XXX 

lb 

v]li. 

viJ5.  vj(i. 

Eggs 

ijM  vC.  xxij 

•  •  •  J  • 

ii]h. 

•  •  • 

11J5. 

Sturgeons 

iij  caggs 

xlvJ5. 

Yii]d, 

Craye  f  yshes 

viij  doos 

xiiJ5. 

•  •  •  •    « 

luja. 

Turbutts 

•  •  • 

VllJ 

Iiij5. 

•  •  •  •    « 

iiija. 

Oysters  A  cartload  and  2 

horseloads. 

vH, 

These  were  the  accounts  of  the  titled 
and  the  wealthy.    The  woman  of  hum- 


20 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

bier  condition,  whose  affairs  were  less 
complicated,  had  simpler  methods. 

A  story  is  told  of  an  old  lady  who  kept 
her  accounts  in  chalk  on  the  back  of  her 
shop  door,  in  a  system  known  only  to 
herself.  She  fell  ill,  and  her  son  came 
home  to  manage  the  shop  until  his  mother 
recovered ;  but  he  did  not  understand  her 
method  of  *' booking.''  The  result  was 
that  every  time  a  customer  came  to  set- 
tle up  the  son  was  compelled  to  unhinge 
the  door  and  carry  it  up  to  his  mother's 
bedroom,  so  that  she  might  calculate  the 
amount  of  the  debt.  He  endured  this  for 
a  day  or  two,  and  then  gave  the  door  a 
coat  of  paint,  thus  finally  settling  the  ac- 
counts. The  old  lady  declared,  when  she 
came  down  again,  that  by  this  action  she 
lost  nearly  five  hundred  dollars. 

But  now  comes  an  unexplained  wonder ; 
and  it  is  partly  on  account  of  the  exist- 

21 


II 


!l 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

ence  of  this  unique  riddle  of  economic 
history  that  the  narrative  form  has  been 
thus  far  followed  in  our  attempt  to  instil 
into  the  mind  of  the  reader  the  general 
principles  of  household  accountancy.     It 
must  have  been  evident  that  we  are  deal- 
ing with  a  branch  of  human  knowledge 
once  and  for  long  ages  recognized  and 
fully  accepted  as  an  important  part  of 
woman's    education,    but    now,  unfort- 
unately, almost  extinct.     It  creates,  in- 
deed, less  surprise  to-day  to  read  that  a 
woman  of  Babylon  was  a  principal  mem- 
ber of  the  great  banking  firm  of  that  an- 
cient city  than  it  would  to  be  told  that 
a  thoroughly  modern  lady  of  the  United 
States  had  incorporated  into  her  domes- 
tic administration  a  fairly  comprehensive 
system  of  financial  accounting.     We  have 
seen  that  accounting  is  an  essential  feat- 
ure of  domestic  economy,  that  its  func- 

22 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

tions  are  embraced  in  the  sphere  of  the 
woman,  that  her  administrative  ability 
requires  it,  and  that  for  a  long  time  she 
was  identified  with  its  application.  Why, 
then,  we  are  compelled  to  ask,  and  at  what 
point  in  the  world's  history,  did  the  wom- 
an of  the  household  begin  to  lose  interest 
in  the  science  and  practice  of  accounts? 
As  early,  at  least,  as  the  sixteenth  century 
this  falling  away  had  become  noticeable, 
and  from  that  time  on  there  is  a  general 
tone  of  regretful  argument,  instead  of  the 
old  Xenophontean  praise,  in  approaching 
the  subject  of  household  accounting. 

While  women  of  the  type  of  Madame  de 
Maintenon  were  looking  after  their  home 
accounts,  others,  more  susceptible  of  ex- 
traneous influences,  were  drawn  into  the 
swirl  of  a  less  practical  life;  and  we 
read  that  the  Precieuses  —  a  nickname 
bestowed  upon  the  somewhat  finical  la- 

23 


PH 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

dies  of  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century— "  left  their  servants'  accounts 
imaudited  that  they  might  preach  the 
doctrines  of  grace." 

Sir  Matthew  Hale  complains  that  in  his 
time  "the  yoimg  gentlewomen  think  it 
disparagement  for  them  to  know  what 
belongs  to  good  housewifery  or  to  prac- 
tise it.    They  know, ' '  he  says,  "  the  ready 
way  to  consume  an  estate  and  to  ruin  a 
family  quickly,  but  neither  know  nor  can 
endure  to  learn  or  practise  the  ways  and 
methods  to  save  it  or  increase  it;  and 
it  is  no  wonder  that  great  portions  are 
expected  with  them,  for  their  portions 
are  commonly  all  their  value." 

It  had  become  a  maxim  of  the  Dutch, 
however,  that  "  no  one  is  ever  ruined  who 
keeps  good  accounts";  and  Mary  Astell, 
an  English  reformer  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  could  still  recommend  to  her 

24 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

countrywomen  the  example  of  the  house- 
wives of  Holland,  who,  she  writes,  "  keep 
the  books,  balance  the  accounts,  and  do 
all  the  business  with  as  much  dexterity 
and  exactness  as  their  own  or  our  men 
can  do." 

To  the  amiable  Fenelon,  however,  we 
must  look  for  a  picture  of  the  real  con- 
dition of  things,  as  well  as  for  an  in- 
dication of  the  true  line  of  reform.  He 
and  Madame  de  Maintenon  complained 
that  in  their  day  few  girls  could  cast  up 
the  simplest  household  accounts  without 
falling  into  confusion;  and  while  the 
prelate,  in  his  classical  work  on  female 
education,  developed  his  theories,  the 
court  lady  endeavored  to  apply  them  and 
to  promulgate  them  by  the  example  of  her 
famous  school  of  Saint-Cyr. 

F6nelon  thought  that  besides  Latin, 
history,  biography,  travels,  poetry,  music, 

25 


I 


HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 


and  art,  a  young  woman  should  know 
something  of  law,  trade,  and  manufact- 
ure, and  should  be  taught  the  *' minutest 
details  of  domestic  economy/'  He  pre- 
scribed for  her  a  knowledge  of  the  four 
rules  of  arithmetic,  not  that  she  might 
become  a  second  Hypatia,  but  in  order 
that  she  might  keep  the  accounts  of  the 
household. 

Miss  Edgeworth,  a  century  later,  writ- 
ing of  economy  as  a  domestic  virtue,  says 
that  children  must  have  the  management 
of  money,  and  that  girls  ought  to  keep 
the  family  accounts;  and  Mrs.  Ellis,  in 
one  of  her  remarkable  works  on  English 
women,  dedicated  to  Queen  Victoria,  says 
that ''  married  women  who  love  justice  to 
themselves  as  well  as  to  others  should 
always  keep  strict  accounts." 

Anne   Cobbett,    in   her   once   popular 
work  for  English  housekeepers,  seems  to 

26 


HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

have  in  mind  the  comprehensive  ac- 
countancy of  the  chatelaine.  After  re- 
ferring favorably  to  her  father's  writings 
on  cottage  economy,  she  says:  '*One 
branch  of  domestic  economy  which  de- 
volves upon  the  mistress  of  a  house  is 
to  keep  an  accotmt  of  the  expenditure  of 
her  family.  She  ought  to  make  this  as 
simple  an  affair  as  possible,  by  ascertain- 
ing, first,  how  much  the  housekeeping 
is  to  cost — that  is  to  say,  how  much  she 
can  afford  to  expend  in  it ;  then,  by  keep- 
ing a  very  strict  account  of  every  article 
for  the  first  two  months,  and  making  a 
little  allowance  for  casualties,  she  may 
be  able  to  form  an  estimate  for  the  year ; 
and  if  she  finds  that  she  has  exceeded  in 
these  two  months  the  allotted  sum,  she 
must  examine  each  article,  and  determine 
in  which  she  can  best  diminish  the  ex- 
pense; and  then,  having  the  average  of 

27 


HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 


i 


J 


M 


two  months  to  go  by,  she  may  calculate 
how  much  she  is  to  allow  each  month 
for  meat,  bread,  groceries,  washing,  and 
the  like.  Having  laid  down  her  plan, 
whatever  excess  she  may  be  compelled 
to  allow  in  one  month  she  must  make  up 
for  in  the  next  month. 

**I  should  not  advise  the  paying  for 
everything  at  the  moment,''  she  writes, 
**but  rather  once  a  week;  for  if  a  trades- 
man omit  to  keep  an  account  of  the 
money  received  for  a  particular  article, 
he  may,  by  mistake,  make  a  charge  as 
for  something  had  extra  and  upon  trust. 
A  weekly  account  has  every  advantage 
of  ready  money,  and  it  saves  trouble.  I 
should  recommend  that  all  tradespeople 
be  paid  on  a  Monday  morning,  the  bills 
receipted,  .  .  .  and  put  by  in  a  portfolio 
or  case  where  they  may  be  easily  referred 
to  as  vouchers,  or  to  refresh  the  memory 

28 


as  to  the  price  of  any  particular  article. 
It  is  a  satisfaction,  independent  of  the 
pecuniary  benefit,  for  the  head  of  a 
family  to  be  able  at  the  end  of  the  year 
to  account  to  herself  for  what  she  has 
done  with  the  money." 

The  same  attitude  of  entreaty  is  seen 
in  the  writings  of  the  Americans.  Our 
best-known  work  on  domestic  economy, 
for  many  years,  was  a  treatise  by  Miss 
Catherine  Beecher.  **How  few,"  she 
says,  ''keep  any  account  at  all  of  their 
current  expenses!  If  a  woman,"  she 
again  says,  arguing  for  benevolence,  ''has 
never  kept  any  accounts,  nor  attempt- 
ed to  regulate  her  expenditures  by  the 
right  rule,  nor  used  her  influence  with 
those  that  control  her  plans,  she  has  no 
right  to  say  how  much  she  can  or  cannot 
do.  Let  a  woman  keep  an  account  of  all 
she  spends  for  herself  and  her  family  for 

29 


;! 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

a  year,  arranging  the  items  under  three 
general  heads.  Under  the  first  put  all 
articles  for  food,  raiment,  rent,  wages,  and 
all  conveniences.  Under  the  second 
place  all  sums  paid  in  securing  an  edu- 
cation, and  books,  and  other  intellectual 
advantages.  Under  the  third  head  place 
all  that  is  spent  for  benevolence  and 
religion. 

''At  the  end  of  the  year  the  first  and 
largest  account  will  show  the  mixed 
items  of  necessaries  and  superfluities, 
which  can  be  arranged  so  as  to  gain 
some  sort  of  idea  how  much  has  been 
spent  for  superfluities  and  how  much 
for  necessaries.  Then,  by  comparing 
what  is  spent  for  superfluities  with  what 
is  spent  for  intellectual  and  moral  ad- 
vantages, data  will  be  gained  for  judging 
of  the  past  and  regulating  the  future." 

And  again,  arguing  on  purely  economic 

30 


I 


HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

grounds.  Miss  Beecher  continues :  ''There 
are  certain  general  principles  which  all 
unite  in  sanctioning.  The  first  is  that 
care  be  taken  to  know  the  amount  of  in- 
come and  of  current  expenses,  so  that  the 
proper  relative  proportion  be  preserved 
and  the  expenditures  never  exceed  the 
means.  Few  women  can  do  this 
thoroughly  without  keeping  regular  ac- 
cotmts.  A  great  deal  of  uneasiness  is 
caused  to  both  husband  and  wife,  in 
many  cases,  by  an  entire  want  of  system 
and  forethought  in  arranging  expenses. 
Both  keep  buying  what  they  think  they 
need,  without  any  calculation  as  to  how 
matters  are  coming  out,  and  with  a  sort 
of  dread  of  running  in  debt  all  the  time 
harassing  them.  Such  never  know  the 
comfort  of  independence.  But  if  a  man 
and  woman  will  only  calculate  what  their 
income  is,  and  then  plan  so  as  to  know 

31 


HOW  TO  KEEP  HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 


HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 


i''.. 


that  they  are  all  the  time  living  within  it, 
they  secure  one  of  the  greatest  comforts 
which  wealth  ever  bestows,  and  what 
many  of  the  rich  who  live  in  a  loose  and 
careless  way  never  enjoy.  It  is  not  so 
much  the  amotmt  of  income  as  the  regu- 
lar and  correct  apportionment  of  expenses 
that  makes  a  family  truly  comfortable. 

*'  Young  ladies  also,''  she  adds,  '*  should 
learn  systematic  economy  in  expenses; 
and  it  will  be  a  great  benefit  for  every 
young  girl  to  begin  at  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  of  age  to  make  her  own  purchases 
and  keep  her  accounts,  under  the  guid- 
ance of  her  mother  or  some  other  friend. 
How  strange  it  appears,"  she  concludes, 
'*that  so  many  young  ladies  take  charge 
of  a  husband's  establishment  without  hav- 
ing had  either  instruction  or  experience 
in  one  of  the  most  important  duties  of 
their  station." 


Thus  we  have  shown  that  fireside  ac- 
cotmtancy  rests  upon  moral  as  well  as 
economic  bases,  and  have  indicated  the 
character  of  these  bases  as  viewed  by 
those  who  have  made  domestic  admin- 
istration their  study. 


3 


32 


Ill 


THE    HOME   ACCOUNT-BOOK 

ACCOUNTING  is  commercial  or  non- 
/jL  commercial.  Non  -  commercial  ac- 
cotmting  applies  to  the  finances  of  those 
who  do  not  make  commerce,  or  buying 
and  selling  for  profit,  their  habitual  pro- 
fession. Under  this  head  are  included 
the  capitalist  and  all  those  who  live  on 
the  labor  of  their  brain  and  of  their 
muscles.  Household  accounting  is  prac- 
tically identical  with  that  of  the  brain- 
worker  and  laborer.  It  is  simple  and 
elementary,  and  is  properly  introductory, 
in  an  educational  sense,  to  capitalistic 
and  commercial  accounting  and  to  all 
the  higher  developments  of  scientific  ac- 

34 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 


countancy.  By  a  very  pretty  fiction  of 
accotmtancy,  the  lady  of  the  house  may 
lead  a  son  or  daughter  through  all  the 
experiences  of  an  industrious  and  econom- 
ical young  man  or  woman  who,  from  a 
wage-earner,  becomes  an  investor  and  a 
leader  of  commerce  and  industry;  and 
thus  this  domestic  education  will  lay  the 
foimdation  for  actual  business  life.  This 
method  is  followed  in  several  educational 
institutions  in  Europe. 

For  instance,  the  class  is  given  the 
case  of  a  poor  yotmg  man  who,  having 
saved  a  little  money,  goes  to  town  and 
finds  employment  as  a  laborer  in  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  merchant.  His  good 
conduct  and  intelligence  are  noted  by  his 
employer,  who  makes  him  his  book- 
keeper and  salesman.  His  continued 
activity  advances  him  in  favor,  and  the 
merchant  gives  him  his  niece  in  marriage. 

35 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

Then,  with  his  savings  augmented  with 
the  dowry  of  his  bride  and  the  facili- 
ties of  credit  gained  by  his  character, 
the  young  man  enters  mercantile  life  on 
his  own  account.  Thus  the  student,  ac- 
companying a  single  individual  through 
various  conditions  in  life,  sees  how  the 
simple  accountancy  of  the  laborer  is 
transformed  into  that  of  the  small  cap- 
italist; how,  alongside  of  the  latter,  the 
accountancy  of  the  merchant  is  con- 
stituted; and  how  both  of  these  sys- 
tems of  accountancy,  working  side  by 
side,  establish  the  situation  of  the  same 
individual  as  viewed  in  the  double 
character  of  capitalist  and  merchant. 
Meanwhile,  upon  the  simple  accountancy 
of  the  young  employe  and  that  of  his 
bride  is  formed  the  accountancy  of  the 
new  domestic  establishment. 

The    matron    will    see,   also,  by    this 

36 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

illustration,  that  her  own  household  ac- 
counting will  afford  her  an  easy  intro- 
duction to  the  care  of  money  in  bank 
or  invested  in  securities,  and  that  if 
thrown  upon  her  own  resources  she  will 
be  able  the  more  readily  to  adapt  her 
methods  to  the  administration  of  exterior 
business  affairs. 

We  labor  to  satisfy  our  needs  and  to 
increase  our  hoard.  Our  labor  is  pro- 
ductive of  these  results,  however,  in  pro- 
portion as  it  is  well  ordered ;  and  it  is 
by  noting  and  writing  down  our  dealings 
as  regularly  and  methodically  as  possible 
that  we  are  able,  whether  we  belong  to 
the  commercial  or  the  non-commercial 
community,  to  keep  in  touch  with  the 
progress  and  outcome  of  our  affairs  and 
to  modify  their  direction  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage. 

Accotmtancy,  which  consists  of  a  state- 

37 


r 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

ment  of  receipts  and  expenses,  is  there- 
fore the  controlling  record  of  exchanges ; 
and  the  matron  of  the  household,  though 
not  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  commerce, 
is  none  the  less  continually  effecting  ex- 
changes. She  buys  the  goods  or  services 
of  which  her  household  is  in  need,  and 
she  settles  with  her  dealers  and  her  ser- 
vants, on  the  spot  or  on  time,  in  coin 
or  bills.  The  family  accounts  may  in- 
clude the  purchase  of  a  piece  of  real  or 
personal  property,  or  a  paper  security, 
and  the  sale  of  it  at  a  loss  or  profit. 
And  in  all  this  buying  and  selling  the 
economic  aim  of  the  household,  as  that 
of  the  business  establishment,  is  to  amass, 
year  by  year,  a  new  capital — to  save,  to 
make,  to  become  possessed  of  a  part  of 
the  mass  of  social  wealth. 

In  thus  producing,  exchanging,  con- 
suming, and  saving,  the  household  es- 

38 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

tablishment,  as  well  as  a  business  concern, 
must  call  to  its  aid  the  science  of  accounts, 
in  order,  first,  to  follow  the  movements 
of  its  receipts  and  expenses;  second,  to 
keep  track  of  its  investments ;  and  third, 
to  determine,  at  the  end  of  the  year  or 
other  set  period,  the  results  of  its  opera- 
tions and  the  exact  situation  of  its  cap- 
ital. 

Now,  it  is  well  known  that  any  blank- 
book,  ruled  for  dates,  details,  and  dollars 
and  cents,  and  exhibiting  receipts  on  the 
left-hand  page  and  disbursements  on  the 
right,  is  far  better  than  nothing  at  all 
as  a  help  to  the  memoryo  Indeed,  the 
income  and  outgo  of  money  are  often 
thus  inscribed  on  the  back  and  front 
of  the  stubs  of  a  check-book;  so  that, 
if  all  receipts  have  been  deposited  in 
the  bank  and  all  expenses  have  been 
taken  therefrom,  the  stub -book  is  left 

39 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 

as  a  chronological  record  of  cash  move- 
ments. 

A  series  of  ordinary  expense  books, 
though  cumbersome,  are  of  some  as- 
sistance in  keeping  control  of  the  cost 
of  conducting  the  different  departments 
of  the  home  establishment ;  and  the  pass- 
books of  the  grocer  and  other  dealers, 
and  miscellaneous  receipted  bills,  are  not 
wholly  useless  as  accounting  appliances 
even  in  the  most  hand-to-mouth  ad- 
ministration. A  miniature  set  of  com- 
mercial books,  consisting  of  ledger,  cash- 
book,  and  journal,  is  now  and  then  seen 
in  the  home,  and  would  seem  to  have 
been  heretofore  needed  wherever  credit 
transactions  have  occurred. 

A  convenient  form  for  a  very  simple 
household  cash-book,  in  which  entries, 
both  of  receipt  and  expense,  are  con- 
fined to  one  page,  is  shown  in  example  A : 

40 


i 


I 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 


DATES 


1903 

Jan.  I 
2 


<( 


(( 


(( 


tt 


t( 


5 

7 


8 


PARTICULARS 


RECEIVED 


Cash  in  hand 

Wood  and  oil 

Bread 

Ribbon 

Bread 

Potatoes 

Provisions 

Dry-goods 

Washing 

Mending 

Bread 

Salary 

Cloak 

Underwear 

Rent 

Paid  grocer 

Paid  butcher 

Fares  and  sundries .  . 

(Balance  $39.15).. 


0.00 


PAID 


40.00 


120.00 


1.20 
.80 
.90 
.80 

2.00 

•65 

3-50 
2.00 

•75 
•95 


8.00 

3-5° 
40.00 

10.80 
3-50 


$80.85 


EXAMPLE  A 
41 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

In  example  B  it  will  be  noticed  that 
the  simple  plan  is  carried  a  step  further, 
making  it  even  more  convenient. 

But  what  is  really  needed,  and  the 
want  of  which  has  been  a  source  of  in- 
creasing discouragement  in  home  man- 
agement during  the  centuries  in  which 
modem  accountancy  has  been  industri- 
ously fitted  to  the  varying  forms  of  coimt- 
ing-house  administration,  is  a  system  of 
household  accounting  that  shall  be  at 
once  comprehensive  in  scope  and  aim, 
and  easy  to  work  and  to  interpret.  And 
to  meet  these  requirements  a  single  reg- 
ister, scientifically  arranged  as  will  be  de- 
scribed, is  sufficient. 

The  method  recommended  will  be  tm- 
derstood  from  the  following  model  and 
a  few  words  of  explanation.  It  meets 
the  requirements  already  specified,  estab- 
lishes the  balance-sheet  of  the  family  and 

42 


1 4^^ 


DATES    OF 
RECEIPTS 

AND 
EXPENDI- 
TURES 

RECEIPTS 

NATURE  OF  CASH  EXPENSES 

• 

CASH    EXPENSES 

SOURCES  OF  INCOME 

SUMS 

SUMS 

DAILY 
TOTALS 

1903 

Jan.    I 

4  4 

2 

''      3 

''      5 
''     7 

"      8 

Cash  in  hand 

Salary 

Total 

$80.00 
40.00 

Wood  and  oil 

Bread 

Ribbon  

Bread 

Potatoes 

Provisions 

Drv-2^oods 

$1.20 
.80 

$2.00 

4.3s 
3-50 

3^70 
67.30 

.90 

,80 

2.00 

•65 

3^50 

Washing 

Mending 

Bread 

Cloak 

Underwear 

2.00 

•75 
•95 

8.00 

350 
40.00 

10.80 

3^5° 
150 

Rent 

Paid  grocer 

Paid  butcher 

Car-fare  and  sundries  . 

(Balance  $39.15).  .  . 

$120.00 

$80.85 

EXAMPLE  B 


1  = 


1 

5 


'J    i 


;l 


t 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

constitutes,  as  it  were,  the  financial  his- 
tory of  the  household.  It  enables  the 
matron  to  keep  a  complete  and  exact  ac- 
count of  her  domestic  operations. 

Household  receipts,  independently  of 
gifts  and  inheritances,  consist  of  wages, 
salaries,  allowances,  fees,  profits,  rents, 
dividends,  interest,  and  the  like,  and  may 
be  entered  in  the  register  merely  as  items 
of  cash  brought  in  by  this  or  that  mem- 
ber of  the  family. 

Household  expenses  are  composed  of 
purchases  of  articles  for  consumption — 
such  as  food,  raiment,  fuel,  and  amuse- 
ments ;  or  of  remuneration,  as  for  service, 
instruction,  rent,  insurance,  transporta- 
tion ;  or  of  purchases  of  durable  utilities, 
such  as  tools,  pictures,  books,  furniture, 
real  estate;  or  of  investments  of  money 
in  enterprises  or  in  securities. 

The  receipts  and  expenses  do  not  al- 

43 


11 


1 

1 


a 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

ways,  however,  exhibit  this  variety.  In 
the  larger  number  of  households  a  saving 
— that  is,  an  excess  of  receipts  over  ex- 
penses—  is  obtained  only  by  a  careful 
cutting  off  of  the  superfluous,  by  a  wise 
employment  of  the  necessary,  and  by  the 
utmost  order  and  economy  in  the  domes- 
tic management.  Those  who  impose  this 
line  of  conduct  upon  themselves,  and 
follow  it  persistently,  create  a  capital 
which,  in  time,  adds  an  interesting  col- 
umn to  their  scheme  of  accoimts. 

Receipts  represent  a  simple  account. 
Expenses  represent  another  simple  ac- 
coimt.  These  together  form  a  true  ac- 
countancy, as  has  been  stated,  which, 
however  rudimentary,  may  register  three 
kinds  of  result.  First,  if  the  expenses 
are  more  than  the  receipts,  either  by  the 
insufficiency  of  the  latter  or  because 
the  household  has  been  improvident  and 

44 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

prodigal,  not  only  is  there  nothing  left 
at  the  end  of  the  period,  but,  having 
Hved  upon  credit— that  is,  upon  the  cap- 
ital of  others— the  household  has  con- 
tracted debts,  and  this  will  be  expressed 
by  the  debit  balance  upon  closing  the 
annual  account.  Second,  if  the  expenses 
exactly  balance  the  receipts,  the  money 
has  merely  passed  through  the  establish- 
ment ;  nothing  remains  at  the  end  of  the 
year;  and  this  fact  will  be  shown  upon 
closing  the  annual  account.  Third,  if  the 
receipts  exceed  the  expenses,  a  surplus 
has  been  created,  a  capital  remains  in 
the  possession  of  the  household ;  and  this 
is  expressed  by  the  credit  balance  ap- 
pearing upon  closing  the  annual  account. 
The  books  necessary  for  household  ac- 
counts, as  well  as  for  business  accounts, 
are  the  journal  and  ledger,  and,  in  ad- 
dition, the  balance  -  sheet.     But  as  the 

45 


I 


11 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 

household  journal  is  a  mere  record  of 
movements  of  cash,  it  is  practically  re- 
duced to  a  simple  original  cash-book. 
As  for  the  ledger,  it  is  limited  to  the 
credit  accounts  of  a  few  dealers,  together 
with   a   classified   statistical   display   of 
expenses,   which  display,   after  a  time, 
will  furnish  the  means  of  comparison  by 
which  to  regulate  future  expenses.    Thus 
the  cash  journal  records  the  dates  and 
amounts  of  all  moneys  received  or  paid 
out;  the  ledger  records  the  same  trans- 
actions, which  have  been  transferred  to 
it    from    the    cash   journal,    each    item 
being  placed  under  its  proper  accotmt 
whether  of  a  person  or  thing.     And  still 
further  to  simplify  this  rudimentary  ac- 
coimtancy,  the  two  books  may  be  fused 
into  a  single  journal-ledger,  in  which  the 
receipts  and  expenses  day  by  day  are 
seen  at  a  glance.      This  view  indicates 

46 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

by  dates,  throughout  the  period,  all 
receipts  and  their  sources;  all  cash  and 
credit  purchases;  detailed  sums  of  all 
cash  expenses;  daily  totals  of  cash  ex- 
penses ;  all  credit  transactions  with  deal- 
ers; statistics,  according  to  kind,  of  all 
articles  bought  on  time  and  for  cash,  and 
daily  totals  of  entire  outlay ;  so  that  the 
whole  financial  situation  of  the  household 
may  be  definitely  determined  at  the  end 
of  a  set  period  or  at  any  other  time. 

A  view  of  the  accompanying  model 
will  show  the  use  to  which  the  various 
divisions  of  the  journal-ledger  are  de- 
voted. The  left-hand  page  of  the  book 
is  the  journal,  which,  in  the  accountancy 
of  the  household,  as  we  have  seen,  is  re- 
duced to  little  more  than  a  cash-book. 
The  right-hand  page  is  the  ledger,  carry- 
ing the  accounts  of  persons  and  of  things. 

Beginning  on  the  left  of  the  left-hand 

47 


**l 


HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

page,  the  first  column  is  reserved  for  the 
dates  of  the  entire  record  on  both  pages. 

The  second  column  indicates  the 
sources  of  the  receipts.  Whether  re- 
ceipts shall  be  traced  to  their  outside 
sources,  as  wages,  fees,  and  other  speci- 
fied earnings,  or  merely  recorded  as 
coming  from  the  different  members  of 
the  household  into  the  hands  of  the 
matron,  will  depend  upon  the  stand-point 
she  may  choose  to  occupy  as  keeper  of 
the  accounts. 

In  the  third  column  are  inscribed  the 
sums  of  the  receipts  and  the  cash  in 
hand  at  the  beginning  of  the  period.  This 
column  should  be  totalled  up  at  least 
once  a  week. 

The  fourth  column  is  devoted  to  a 
chronological  record  of  the  nature  of  all 
purchases.  It  is  essential  that  this  in- 
dication of  kinds  of  goods  bought  should 

48 


W    Q 


W 


0_  t— I 


t/3 


CO 


Q 


t:  w  cu 

<  u  X 


IQ03 

Jan.   I 


( ( 


a 


a 


5 
"     6 


t< 


**      8 


RECEIPTS 


SOURCES 


Cash  in  Hand 


Salary 


X  Obai • 


NATURE    OF   CASH    AND 
CREDIT    EXPENSES 


SUMS 


$80.00 


Meat 

Wood  and  oil 

Bread 

Groceries  .... 


Ribbon  .  .  . 
Bread .... 

Beef 

Potatoes  . 
Provisions 


Dry-goods 


Groceries 


40.00 


120.00 


Washing 
Mending 
Mutton  . 
Bread. .  . 


Cloak 

Underwear 


Sugar 

Rent 

Paid  grocer 

Paid  butcher 

Car-fare  and  sundries 


(Balance  $39.15) 


CASH 
EXPENSES 


SUMS 


$1.20 

.80 


.90 
.80 


2.00 
.65 


3-50 


2.00 

•75 


•95 


8.00 
3-50 


40.00 
10.80 

3^50 
1.50 


DAILY 
TOTALS 


2.00 


4.35 


3-50 


3-70 


67.30 


$80.85 


CREDIT   EXPENSES 


GROCER 


DR. 


CR. 


$6.50 


10.80 


BUTCHER 


DR. 


3-50 


,80 


$10.80 


$10.80 


•       «      •      •      • 


S3.  50 


S3. 50 


CR. 


$1.00 


.35 


5 


3.50 


Q 
O 
O 

PC4 


$1.00 

.80 

6. 50 

.80 

1.35 
2.00 

•65 


3-5° 


1-15 
•95 


.80 


19-50 


o 

»— t 

H 
O 

O 


•      •       <      • 


$  .90 


3-5° 


8.00 
3-50 


$1590 


H  ^  "^ 

E  <  W 

^7  ►^  h-t 

o  ^  <^ 


$1.20 


2.00 

•75 


3-95 


AND 
EOUS 

tn 

W 

X 

W   ^ 

< 

';^  < 

H 

D  -^ 

»>- 

C/5    '-' 

H 

<     r" 

'A 

w  ^ 

U 

J  ^ 

« 

(X,    ^ 

<A 

$1.50 


1.50 


$40.00 


$40.00 


I 

::  w  w 

S  "  ^ 

t^  •-'  I-. 


w  w 

<    r^    f^ 

•^  O 


$9.50 


5.7Q 
3.5Q 
3.50 


4.8s 


53.80 


$80.85 


MODEL   OF   THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 


I 


r 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

be  explicit,  so  as  to  furnish  the  informa- 
tion required  for  the  statistical  columns 
which  follow  on  the  ledger  side;  but  to 
avoid  the  multiplication  of  detail,  the 
entries  here  may  be  under  somewhat 
general  heads,  and  the  particulars  may  be 
kept  in  the  butcher's  and  grocer's  pass- 
books or  in  a  rough  memorandum-book 
of  daily  expenses.  The  two  following 
columns  carry,  in  the  one  the  detailed 
figures  of  the  cash  expenses,  and  in  the 
other  the  daily  totals  of  the  same  ex- 
penses. At  least  once  a  week  the  cash 
outlay  should  be  totalled  up  and  com- 
pared with  the  total  receipts,  and  the 
balance,  as  found  by  the  book  and  veri- 
fied by  actual  count  of  money  in  hand, 
may  be  set  down  within  brackets  in  the 
fourth  column,  as  shown  in  the  model. 
It  will  be  better  still  if  this  balance  in 
hand  be  figured  up  and  verified  daily. 
4  49 


I 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

Credit  purchases  as  well  as  cash  pur- 
chases are  described  in  the  fourth  col- 
umn, but  their  figures  are  carried  forward 
to  the  credit  columns  of  the  dealers — 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  columns  in  which  are 
placed  all  amounts  due  the  dealers;  and 
thus  the  housewife  has,  day  by  day,  a 
view  of  her  entire  cash  and  credit  ex- 
penses. The  number  of  credit  accounts, 
of  course,  is  optional.  Each  dealer  has 
a  debit  and  a  credit  column.  When  the 
payment,  or  a  part  payment,  is  made,  it 
is  described  in  the  fourth  and  the  amount 
is  entered  in  the  fifth  column  as  a  cash 
expense,  and  the  amount  of  payment  is 
also  entered  in  the  debit  column  of  the 
dealer — that  is  to  say,  in  the  column 
which  records  the  amounts  paid  the  deal- 
er. When  the  columns  of  the  dealers  are 
footed  up,  if  a  debit  column  does  not 
amount  to  as  much  as   the  adjoining 

50 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

credit    column,    the    difference    is    the 
amotmt  due  the  dealer. 

Following  the  accounts  of  the  dealers 
on  the  ledger  page  are  several  columns 
exhibiting   together   a    daily    statistical 
abstract  of  all  expenses.     This  abstract 
is  merely  a  classified  repetition  of  the 
entries  already  made,  and  must  agree  in 
its  collective  total  with  the  combined 
totals  of  the  cash  and  credit  expense 
columns   on  the  journal,  or  left-hand, 
page.     It   must   be   remembered,    how- 
ever, that  as  credit  expenses  have  been 
carried    into    these    statistical    columns 
from  the  credit  columns  of  the  dealers, 
they  must  not  be  again  brought  forward 
from  the  debit  columns  of  the  dealers,  or 
from  the  cash  column  on  the  journal 
page,  when  the  payments  are  made. 

The    statistical    columns    enable    the 
housewife  to  make  constant  comparison 

51 


HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 

of  the  cost  of  the  living  departments  with 
one  another  and  with  her  income;  to 
make  necessary  modifications ;  and  to  reg- 
ulate, at  the  end  of  any  period,  her  bud- 
get for  the  ensuing  period.  The  number 
of  these  columns  is  optional,  depending 
upon  the  variety  of  statistical  informa- 
tion desired. 

Mrs.  Ellen  Richards,  an  American  au- 
thority on  the  cost  of  living,  has  suggest- 
ed a  number  of  budgets  under  the  follow- 
ing five  general  heads :  first,  food ;  second, 
rent;  third,  operating  expenses,  wages, 
fuel,  light,  and  so  on;  fourth,  clothes; 
fifth,  higher  life,  books,  travel,  church, 
charity,  savings,  insurance.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  a  table  of  actual  family  ex- 
penses, the  same  lady  uses  twenty-eight 
general  heads  of  outlay.  The  simple  dis- 
tribution adopted  in  the  model  will  be 
sufficiently  elaborate  for  a  modest  be- 

52 


\ 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

ginning;  and  the  housewife  may  set  off 
other  columns,  as  desired,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  any  new  period. 

When,  by  industry  and  economy,  and 
by  order  therein,  a  capital  shall  have 
been  saved  that  may  be  invested  in  any- 
thing of  permanent  value,  such  as  furni- 
ture, pictures,  books,  etc.,  a  column  may 
be  set  apart  from  the  miscellaneous  col- 
umn for  the  record  of  such  transactions. 
This  will  lead,  by  an  easy  gradation,  to 
the  establishment  of  a  capitalistic  ac- 
coimtancy ;  an  accountancy  of  the  second 
degree,  whose  twofold  mission  is,  first,  to 
render  account  of  current  receipts  and 
expenses ;  and,  second,  of  a  capital  amass- 
ed and  successively  modified.  At  first, 
however,  it  will  be  well  to  become  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  the  simpler  form  by 
carrying  all  unusual  items  into  the  mis- 
cellaneous column. 

53 


I 


1 


HOW   TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

The  final  column  receives  the  entire 
daily  total  of  cash  and  credit  expenses. 
It  should  be  footed  up  weekly.  It  must 
always  agree  with  the  sums  shown  by  the 
statistical  columns.  It  must  also  agree 
with  the  combined  sums  of  the  credit 
columns  of  the  dealers  and  the  cash 
column  of  expenses,  minus  the  pay- 
ments to  dealers,  as  already  explained. 
It  will  agree  with  the  cash  expense 
column  alone,  if  the  dealers  have  been 
fully  paid ;  if  not,  the  difference  will  show 
the  entire  amount  remaining  unpaid. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  administrator  of 
the  household  affairs,  by  means  of  this 
simple  series  of  concurrent  columns,  may 
know  from  day  to  day:  first,  from  the 
cash  balance,  her  pecuniary  situation 
with  reference  to  herself;  second,  from 
the  accounts  of  the  dealers,  her  pecuniary 
situation  with  reference  to  her  creditors ; 

54 


^ 


THE    HOME    ACCOUNT-BOOK 

third,  her  daily  cash  expense ;  fourth,  her 
total  current  cash  and  credit  expense; 
fifth,  from  the  statistical  columns,  the 
current  cost  of  each  department.  The 
columns  should  be  totalled  each  week. 

The  entries  for  each  week  follow  with- 
out break  the  totals  as  shown  under  the 
preceding  week,  so  as  not  to  interrupt  the 
addition  of  the  columns.  On  the  last  day 
of  December  the  total  of  the  cash  ex- 
pense column  indicates  the  annual  cash 
outlay;  the  columns  of  the  dealers  show 
the  full  yearly  amount  of  debt  incurred 
and  the  full  amount  paid  in  settlement; 
and  the  final  column  presents  the  grand 
total  of  the  cost  of  the  household,  cash 
and  credit,  for  the  year.  On  the  first 
of  January,  or  the  day  following  the 
close  of  the  old  period,  the  journal-ledger 
is  again  opened,  for  the  ensuing  period, 
with  the  cash  in  hand  entered  as  before, 

55 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

and  with  any  balance  that  may  still  be 
due  to  a  dealer  entered  in  his  credit 
column. 

All  these  financial  details  the  house- 
wife must  know,  in  order  that  she  may 
regulate  her  administration  intelligently, 
that  she  may  economize  methodically, 
and  that  she  may  constitute  a  savings 
fund  and  direct  that  fund  in  the  way  of 
increase. 


K 


f 


IV 


THE    BALANCE-SHEET 

IT  is  at  this  point,  when  the  accounts 
of  a  period  are  closed  and  those  of 
the  following  period  are  opened,  that  the 
financial  condition  of  the  household  is 
recorded  on  the  balance-sheet.  This 
closing  and  opening  of  the  accounts  in 
no  wise  interferes  with  the  movement  of 
affairs;  and  the  balance-sheet  is  but  a 
kind  of  instantaneous  photograph  of  the 
status  of  the  business  at  the  chosen  mo- 
ment, showing  how  the  situation  com- 
pares, on  the  one  hand,  with  a  former 
condition,  and,  on  the  other,  with  the 
ideal  in  the  mind  of  the  administrator. 
In  form,  a  balance-sheet,  as  its  name 

57 


f 


HOW   TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

implies,  is  a  sheet  of  balances.  In  the 
complicated  accountancy  of  modem  com- 
merce and  finance,  it  is  the  result  of  much 
labor  expended  in  centralizing  the  figures 
of  a  more  or  less  extensive  system  of 
books  of  account.  Its  appearance  is 
often  awaited  with  anxiety,  and  its  con- 
tents are  studied  with  care  by  the  stock- 
holder, the  bondholder,  the  manager,  the 
competitor,  and  the  political  economist. 

In  the  accountancy  of  the  household, 
however,  the  balance-sheet  is  a  much 
simpler  affair.  The  journal-ledger  here 
recommended  affords  a  ready  view  of  the 
situation  from  day  to  day;  while  the 
weekly  or  monthly  balancings,  appearing 
at  a  glance  in  one  short,  horizontal  row 
of  figures,  are  a  kind  of  periodical  review ; 
and  thus,  in  this  progression  of  the 
whole  record  together,  the  housewife  has 
a  complete  history  of  her  conduct  of 

58 


THE    BALANCE-SHEET 


affairs.  But  for  permanent  comparison 
of  the  results  of  her  administration,  it 
is  convenient  to  make  a  division  of  time 
into  periods  of  uniform  length  and 
character,  and  to  sum  up  the  results  of 
each  period  and  record  them  by  them- 
selves. The  natural  uniform  period  is 
the  year;  and  the  form  in  which  the  re- 
sults of  the  period  are  brought  together 
for  convenient  reference  and  comparison 
is  the  balance-sheet. 

Three  kinds  of  result,  as  already  noted, 
are  possible:  the  income  may  have  been 
insufficient,  or  just  enough,  or  more  than 
enough,  to  meet  the  expense.  We  may 
apply  these  three  results  to  the  ac- 
countancy of  a  young  couple  who,  let  us 
say,  open  their  book  of  financial  record 
on  January  i,  1902,  with  $80  cash  in 
hand.  The  first  year,  besides  the  $80 
entered  on  the  ist  of  January,  there  is 

59 


ii 


■■  i 


1 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

an  income  of  $40  a  week  for  fifty  weeks- 
two  weeks  having  been  lost  in  one  way 
and  another— being  a  total  of  receipts  of 
$2,000  +  $80  =  $2,080.     Their  expenses, 
by  reason  of  their  want  of  experience  in 
the  practice  of  economy,  and  because  of 
their   early   need   of   household   effects, 
have  reached  the  sum  of  $2,300,  leaving 
a  deficit  of  $220,  of  which  $70  are  due 
to  the  butcher  and  $150  to  the  grocer. 
To  express,  at  the  close  of  the  year,  this 
result  in  a  methodical  manner,  they  pre- 
pare their  simple  household  balance-sheet, 
dated  December  31,  1902,  based  upon  the 
following  facts  as  shown  by  their  jour- 
nal-ledger : 

Their  cash  income,  including  the  cash 
in  hand  at  the  beginning  of  the  period, 
has  given  them  $2,080,  and  the  grocer 
has  loaned  them  $150  and  the  butcher 
$70  worth  of  goods,  making  in  all  $2,300 

60 


THE  Balance-sheet 


to  meet  a  total  expense  of  $2,300,  $220  of 
which  is  an  indebtedness  which  they  will 
carry  over  to  the  credit  of  the  grocer  and 
butcher  when  the  accounts  are  reopened. 
This  situation  is  expressed  in  tabular 
form  as  follows : 


DECEMBER   3I,   I902 

DR. 

CR. 

Cash  resources 

Balance  due  on  credit  pur- 
chases : 

Grocer 

$2,080 

ISO 
70 

Butcher 

Expenses  for  the  year 

Totals 

$2,300 

$2,300 

$2,300 

HOUSEHOLD    BALANCE-SHEET    EXPRESSING    A 

DEFICIT. 

The  table  given  above  may  be  in- 
scribed in  any  convenient  place,  say 
near  the  end  of  the  journal-ledger;  and 
on  the  first  day  of  January,  1903,  the 

61 


I 


« 


ll 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

journal-ledger  is  reopened  with  the  $70 
carried  to  the  credit  of  the  butcher  and 
the  $150  carried  to  the  credit  of  the 
grocer. 

The  second  year  a  total  of  $2,080, 
being  $40  a  week  for  the  full  fifty-two 
weeks,  is  earned  and  entered  in  the  cash 
receipts.  An  examination  of  the  statis- 
tical columns  has  shown  the  young  house- 
wife that  money  has  been  spent  in  one  or 
two  of  the  departments  which  might  have 
been  saved ;  and  this  second  year  she  has 
not  only  paid  off  the  debt  of  $220  to  the 
butcher  and  grocer,  but  has  kept  her 
running  expenses  down  to  the  $1,860 
remaining  of  the  $2,080,  thus  equaliz- 
ing the  receipts  and  expenses.  At  the 
close  of  the  second  year,  therefore,  she 
is  in  a  position  to  prepare  a  balance- 
sheet  expressive  of  freedom  from  obliga- 
tion: 

62 


THE    BALANCE-SHEET 


y.,d 


DECEMBER   3I,   1903 


Cash  resources 

Balance  paid  on  credit  pur- 
chases : 

Grocer 

Butcher 

Expenses  for  the  year 

Totals... 


DR. 

CR, 

$2,080 

$150 

70 

1,860 

$2,080 

$2,080 

- 

HOUSEHOLD     BALANCE  -  SHEET     EXPRESSING 
FREEDOM    FROM    OBLIGATION. 

On  the  I  St  of  January,  1904,  the  house- 
wife, upon  a  serious  consideration  of  this 
second  result,  resolves  to  bring  her  affairs 
to  the  close  of  another  year  with  a  still 
better  balance-sheet,  and  to  this  end  they 
endeavor  together  to  decide  upon  a  min- 
imum outlay  upon  which  they  may  live 
comfortably.  Upon  the  same  day  the 
young  man  learns  that  his  salary  is  raised 
to  $50  a  week,  and  this  good  news  con- 

63 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

firms  them  in  their  projects  of  economy. 
The  income  during  this  third  year  is 
$50  X  52  =  $2,600,  while  the  expenses  are 
$2,025.  Thus  there  is  a  cash  balance  at 
the  end  of  the  year  of  $575,  and  the  new 
balance-sheet  shows  the  young  domestic 
economist  is  now  prepared  to  add  to  her 
household  accountancy  the  further  feat- 
ure of  capitalistic  accountancy: 


DECEMBER   31,   I904 

DR. 

CR. 

Cash  resources 

Cash  balance  in  hand 

Expenses  for  the  year 

$575 
2,025 

$2,600 

Totals 

$2,600 

$2,600 

HOUSEHOLD     BALANCE  -  SHEET     EXPRESSING 
POSSESSION    OF    CAPITAL. 

It  ought  here  to  be  again  noted  that 
the  simple  journal-ledger  contains  in  it- 
self all  the  accounts  of  the  household. 

64 


THE    BALANCE-SHEET 

The  balance-sheet,  valuable  for  purposes 
of  administration  and  the  full  expression 
of  the  financial  situation,  can  be  made  up 
at  any  time  for  any  past  period  or  series 
of  periods,  and  need  not  give  the  house- 
wife any  concern  for  at  least  a  year  after 
the  first  opening  of  her  journal-ledger. 

This  journal-ledger  may  be  any  wide- 
paged  blank-book,  in  which  she  may  rule 
off  her  columns  a  couple  of  pages  at  a 
time  as  wanted;  and  the  ruling,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  may  be  with  pencil  or  with 
pen  and  ink,  and  with  or  without  all  the 
captions  fully  expressed  as  in  the  model. 

It  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized 
that  the  entire  value  of  the  book  rests 
upon  a  recognition  of  the  absolute  need 
of  order  and  method  in  the  financial 
administration  of  the  modem  household ; 
that  is,  that  the  whole  question  is  first 
and  last  a  matter  of  business. 

5  65 


) 


H 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND  INVENTORY 

THE  budget,  though  one  of  the  most 
important  features  of  the  matron's 
administration,  and  the  twin -sister,  we 
may  say,  of  her  accoimtancy,  is  not  to  be 
considered  as  in  any  way  affecting  the 
completeness  of  the  subject  as  already 
viewed.  And  so  with  the  voucher ;  and 
so,  also,  with  the  inventory.  All  these 
are  of  greater  or  less  importance;  but, 
with  or  without  them,  the  journal-ledger 
embraces  the  entire  movement,  the  bal- 
ance-sheet records  the  exact  situation, 
and  whatever  is  more  is,  at  most,  only 
of  correlative  value  to  accountancy. 

66 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

THE   BUDGET 

The  budget  has  been  often  called  ''the 
prospective  balance-sheet.''  We  have 
seen  that  the  statistical  columns  of  the 
journal-ledger  are  for  the  purpose  of 
distributing  or  classifying  the  household 
purchases  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
articles  bought,  and  that  the  number  and 
headings  of  these  columns  are  dependent 
upon  the  variety  of  information  the 
matron  may  desire  thus  to  preserve.  She 
may  have  a  special  reason  for  wishing  to 
know  just  how  much  money  she  is  spend- 
ing on  some  particular  object  in  which 
another  household  might  not  be  interest- 
ed, and  to  this  end  she  can  mark  off  a 
column  in  which  to  carry  the  cost  of  each 
purchase  of  this  article;  and  so  on. 

But  the  principal  use  of  this  informa- 
tion is  to  furnish  a  basis  for  estimating 

67 


! 


j       > 


If* 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

the  cost  of  maintaining  the  household  in 
the  immediate  future.  This  estimate  is 
known  as  the  budget,  so  called  from  the 
bag  or  budget  of  financial  estimates  laid 
before  the  British  House  of  Commons  by 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

*'And  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves/* 
says  Louise  d'Alq,  in  La  Mattresse  de 
Maison ;  "many  a  household  has  quite 
as  much  trouble  as  certain  ministers,  and 
much  more,  to  attain  this  object  of  es- 
tablishing its  budget  of  receipts  and  ex- 
penses; for  it  cannot  have  recourse,  as 
they  can,  to  forced  loans  and  other  ar- 
bitrary sources  of  income." 

The  household  budget,  or  statement  of 
the  probable  revenue  and  expenditure  of 
the  establishment  for  the  ensuing  period, 
is  the  result  of  a  careful  comparison  of 
what  is  wanted  or  desired  with  what  can 
be  attained.     ''  The  budget  is  bom,"  said 

68 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

a  noted  French  journalist,  ''of  the  im- 
perious necessity  for  an  equilibrium  of 
receipts  and  expenses."  There  must  be, 
first  of  all,  an  approximately  correct 
notion  of  the  amount  of  income  from 
which  the  expenditure  may  be  drawn; 
and  within  this  limit — ^by  reason,  indeed, 
of  the  limitation  itself — there  is  ample 
room  for  the  fullest  exercise  of  woman's 
ingenuity  and  judgment  in  arriving  at  a 
well-proportioned  estimate  of  expenses. 
In  this  work,  the  one  indispensable  ally 
of  the  matron  will  be  the  statistical 
department  of  her  journal-ledger.  Her 
accoimtancy  will  unite  the  past  to  the 
future  of  her  finances,  and  her  household 
budget  will  be  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween this  accountancy  and  her  active 
administration. 

A  few  general  considerations,  founded 
upon  a  study  of  many  budgets,  will  not, 

69 


HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

it  is  hoped,  be  out  of  place.  This  study, 
it  must  be  admitted,  Hke  that  of  the  more 
elementary  household  accounting  upon 
which  it  is  fotmded,  has  not,  in  our 
modem  civilization,  gone  very  deep  or 
very  far.  The  commissioner  of  labor  of 
the  United  States  has  tabulated  the 
average  percentages  of  various  expenses 
to  income  of  a  number  of  families  en- 
gaged in  the  iron,  coal,  glass,  cotton,  and 
woollen  industries.  Dr.  Engels,  head  of 
the  Prussian  royal  bureau  of  statistics, 
has  published  a  series  of  studies  on  fam- 
ily budgets;  Ellen  Richards,  to  whom 
reference  has  already  been  made,  has 
instituted  inquiry  in  the  same  line  of  re- 
search ;  and  a  number  of  valuable  articles 
have  been  contributed  to  various  peri- 
odicals on  the  same  subject.  And  thus 
it  will  be  seen  that  a  beginning  has  been 
made,  and  that  ''it  is  for  those  educated 

70 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

persons  with  one  thousand  to  three 
thousand  dollars  annual  income  to  lead 
the  way  in  the  studies  necessary  to  be  un- 
dertaken before  any  authoritative  state- 
ments can  be  made.'' 

The  Bulletin  of  the  International  Insti- 
tute of  Statistics  has  printed  a  formula- 
tion of  four  laws  by  Dr.  Engels,  which 
have  been  pronounced  by  other  statis- 
ticians to  be  ''absolutely  exact."  These 
laws,  the  result  of  observation,  are  ex- 
pressed in  the  language  of  mathematics; 
the  drift  of  them  is :  first,  that  as  income 
increases,  the  smaller  is  the  relative 
percentage  of  outlay  for  food;  second, 
that  the  outlay  for  clothing  maintains  a 
constant  proportion  to  the  whole;  third, 
that  the  percentage  of  the  outlay  for 
shelter,  and  for  heat  and  light,  is  the 
same,  whatever  the  income;  and  fourth, 
that  the  percentage  of  outlay  for  sim- 

71 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 


dries  (expressing  the  degree  of  prosper- 
ity) increases  as  income  advances.  A 
concluding  observation  is,  that  the  less 
a  household  earns  the  greater  is  the  pro- 
portion expended  for  nutriment,  what- 
ever else  may  have  to  be  renounced. 

The  Prussian  statistician  estimates 
that,  taking  one  country  with  another,  a 
poor  family,  with  an  income  of  a  dollar 
a  day  for  the  working  year  of  three 
hundred  days,  will  expend  on  an  aver- 
age $i86  for  food,  $36  for  rent,  $15  for 
light  and  heat,  $48  for  raiment,  and  $15 
on  the  higher  life.  A  modest  household, 
dependent  upon  one  of  the  industries  se- 
lected by  the  commissioner  of  labor  for 
comparison,  and  having  a  total  of  receipts 
of  $Ij5oo_  a  year,  lays  out  $343.40  for 
food,  $149.60  for  rent,  $40  for  fuel, 
$7.40  for  light,  $168.40  for  clothing,  and 
$291.20  for  all  other  purposes. 

72 


t\ 


'/ 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

A  very  common  American  budget  is 
that  of  a  household  of  four  adults  and 
two  children,  who,  with  an  income  of 
$2^000^  spend  $726  for  nutriment,  $484 
for  shelter  and  car-fares  to  and  from  place 
of  business,  $418  for  light,  heat,  service, 
and  other  operating  items,  and  $372  for 
clothing,  education,  amusements,  benevo- 
lence, savings,  and  the  higher  life  general- 
ly ;  in  contrast  with  which  Mrs.  Richards 
has  suggested,  for  the  same  income,  a  dis- 
tribution of  $500  for  food,  about  $400 
for  rent,  about  $300  for  service,  light,  fuel, 
and  other  operating  expenses,  about 
$400  for  raiment,  and  $400  for  the  higher 
life,  books,  travel,  church,  charity,  sav- 
ings, and  insurance;  while  Miss  Florence 
Stacpoole,  an  English  lecturer  and  writer 
on  domestic  economy,  recommends  to  her 
countrywomen,  for  the  same  total  outlay, 
$300  for  rent,   $835   for  housekeeping, 

73 


HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

$200  for  service,  $80  for  heat  and  light, 
$225  for  dress,  and  $360  for  education, 
amusements,  sickness,  and  incidentals. 
It  will  be  remarked  that  if  these  amounts 
are  reduced  to  percentages,  a  very  wide 
latitude  is  seen  in  the  proportioning  of 
expenses;  food,  for  example,  ranging  all 
the  way  from  62  down  to  25  per  cent. 
This  may  be  partially  attributed  to  eco- 
nomic differences  between  Great  Britain 
and  America. 

The  following  interesting  budget,  the 
original  of  which  is  preserved  at  Osmas- 
ton  Hall,  Derbyshire,  England,  will  show 
that  the  latter  percentage  for  food  was 
considered  fair  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century;  though  to  produce 
this  proportion  we  must  leave  out  of 
the  25  per  cent,  the  beer  and  liquors, 
the  cows,  and  the  board  of  the  boys  at 
school : 

74 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,   AND    INVENTORY 

Computation  for  M^  Yeardley  19  May  1753 

;^485  a  year  at  Osmaston. 
Upon  a  plan  of  living  altogether  at  Osmaston. 
2  M""  and  Sister  Wilmot 

2  Marow  and  Betsey 

3  Maids 
3  Men 

10  in  Family 

I  constant  in  addition 

11  to  be  provided  for 


Sunday 


Monday 


Roast  or  boiled  fowls 
Roast  and  boiled  beef  & 
Pudding  Pye  or  Pancake. 

Boiled  or  Fry^  Cow  heel 
Roast  Mutton  &       Do. 


Tuesday  Veal  &  Bacon,  Mutton  &  Stakes 

Wednesday     Herbs  &  Bacon,  Roast  veal 


Thursday 


Friday 


Boiled  Mutton  Roast  Pork 
Rabbits  Fowls  &  Pudding  Pye 

Fish  Boiled  or  Roast  Beef  and  do 

75 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

Saturday  Marrow    Bones,  a   fry   of   liver 

heart,  etc. 

The  above  to  be  varied  just  as  most  agree- 
able or  convenient  according  to  the  season 
and  cheapness  or  goodness  of  things. 

Sunday            2  fowls o  i  3 

II    lbs    of    beef 

at  2% o  2  6% 

a  lb  of  bacon  at 

6^ o  o  6 

Pudding  or  Pye  o  o  3% 

047 

Monday  Cow  heal o  o  6 

Pudding o  o  3  % 

II   lbs  of  Mut- 
ton at  2 % .  .  .  o  2  654 

034 
Tuesday  11   lbs  of  Veal 

&  Mutton 

at  2^ o  2  6% 

Pudding o  o  3  % 

Bacon o  o  6 

034 
76 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

Wednesday     Bacon o       o       6 

II    lbs   of   Veal       o       2       6% 

Pudding o       o       sH 

034 

Thursday         11  lbs  of  mut- 
ton   or    pork       o       2       6% 

Pudding o       o       3  % 

Rabbits 010 

o       3     10 

Friday  Fish      removed 

with  chickens       026 
II   lbs   of   Beef       o       2       6% 

Pudding o       o       3% 

054 

Saturday         Marrow  Bones.       006 

Fry o       I       6 

Pudding 006 

026 

163 

1 1  lbs  of  butter  a  week  at  6^      o       5       6 

Bread  and  Muffins o       7       o 

Salt  Vinegar  &  pepper  oyl  ...       o       2       3 

Cheese 010 

220 

77 


It 


I 

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HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 

Two    guineas    a   week    amount 

to 109  4  o 

Strong  beer,  small  beer,  or  ale . .  30  o  o 

Wine IS  o  o 

Spirits 10  o  o 

Coals 12  o  o 

Soap,  candles,  blacking 12  o  o 

Tea,  chocolate,  coffee,  rice 6  o  o 

Sugar  for  tea  and  house 7  o  o 

3  maids  wages 10  o  o 

3  mens  wages  and  liveries 25  o  o 

Sister  Wilmots  Cloathes  and  pin 

money 20  o  o 

Marow  Do 10  o  o 

Betty 10  o  o 

Gardeners  [2] 13  o  ^ 

3  Boys  at  School  £30 90  ^  o 

M^  Yeardley 50  o  ^ 

4  horses  £40  coach  tax  and  re- 
pairs    10  o  o 

2  Cows  etc 5  ^^  Q 

;£445  o  o 
Balance  over 
£40. 

78 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

These  budgets  emphasize  the  perma- 
nence of  certain  wants,  and  indicate  the 
few  statistical  columns  to  which  the  in- 
experienced housewife  may  confine  her 
distribution  of  expenses.  A  matron  who 
should  begin  with  a  record  of  outlay 
for  shelter,  for  general  operation  of  the 
house,  for  nourishment,  for  dress,  and 
for  sundries,  might  have  occasion,  in  the 
course  of  years,  to  set  oflE  particular  col- 
umns for  board,  meat,  groceries,  medi- 
cine, the  doctor,  the  lawyer,  servants, 
travelling,  local  car -fares,  amusements, 
books,  periodicals,  papers,  furniture, 
taxes,  interest,  insurance,  stable,  charity, 
education,  laundry,  music,  water,  repairs, 
milk,  ice,  and  the  private  expenses  of 
the  sons,  of  the  daughters,  and  of  mon- 
sieur and  madame. 

But,  in  the  main,  the  reasoning  of  the 
domestic  economist  will  be  that  we  must 

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HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

eat  and  drink,  wear  clothes,  have  a  roof 
over  our  heads,  pay  for  service,  edu- 
cate the  young,  look  after  the  general 
comfort  and  well-being  of  the  household, 
and  save  what  we  may,  conveniently,  out 
of  our  income.  And  nothing,  it  may  be 
said,  will  require  more  careful  considera- 
tion— will  more  clearly  reveal  the  charac- 
ter of  the  mistress  of  the  home,  or  repay 
her  with  greater  results — than  the  pro- 
duction of  a  well-balanced  and  economi- 
cal budget  founded  upon  well-kept  ac- 
counts. 

THE   VOUCHER 

The  voucher  is  a  written  evidence  of 
payment,  and,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
administration  of  the  chatelaine  and  the 
recommendation  of  modem  writers,  it 
ought  as  such  to  be  preserved. 

The  voucher  is  of  threefold  value — ac- 

80 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

counting,  administrative,  and  legal.  A 
complete  series  of  vouchers  would  alone 
constitute  a  reliable  though  clumsy  rec- 
ord of  expenses.  But,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  check -book  used  for  a  cash-book, 
this  is  not  the  primary  object  of  the 
voucher;  nor  does  accountancy  depend 
upon  any  such  secondary  employment 
of  borrowed  appliances. 

In  the  organization  of  extensive  en- 
terprises, the  idea  of  the  voucher  in- 
cludes all  kinds  of  interior  documentary 
authority  for  payment,  as  well  as  ex- 
terior evidence  of  it;  and  as  labor  is 
more  and  more  divided  in  these  vast  con- 
cerns, the  voucher  becomes  of  greater 
importance  and  variety.  But,  as  Eu- 
gene Leautey,  author  of  La  Science  des 
Comptes,  has  said,  '*we  must  admit  that 
in  the  accountancy  of  simple  individuals 
the  need  of  classifying  all  vouchers  as 

6  81 


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HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

supports  for  the  movements  of  money  is 
much  less  rigorous  than  in  mercantile 
and  industrial  accounting/'  The  matron 
of  the  household  will  find  her  receipts, 
receipted  bills,  dealers'  passbooks,  letters 
of  acknowledgment,  and  the  like,  useful 
as  memoranda  when  making  up  her  ac- 
counts, and  legally  valuable  as  vouchers 
in  case  of  dispute,  and  may  be  content 
merely  to  keep  them  for  a  reasonable 
while  in  some  handy  way  of  reference, 
and  then  either  to  get  rid  of  them  or  store 
them  away  in  packages. 

THE   INVENTORY 

The  inventory,  if  kept  at  all,  will  take 
form  according  to  its  intended  use.  It 
may  be  a  simple  list  of  household  goods, 
made  up  either  with  or  without  order; 
it  may  be  either  without  valuation,  or 
priced  according  to  cost,  or  according  to 

82 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

some  notion  of  present  worth ;  and  it  may 
be  kept  entirely  apart  by  itself,  or  the 
money  value  may  be  entered,  either  as 
a  total  or  as  several  sub  -  totals,  in  the 
accounts.  Such  entry,  to  keep  the  ac- 
counts in  balance,  can  be  made,  with 
accompanying  explanation,  as  cash  re- 
ceived and  cash  expended  for  the  goods, 
and  thus  the  household  effects  will  obtain 
representation. 

But  as  no  practical  purpose  is  served 
by  the  introduction  of  this  element  into 
the  book,  and  as  all  articles  bought  since 
the  opening  of  the  book  are  already  ac- 
counted for,  the  inventory  will  better  be 
kept  out  of  the  account-book  tmtil  the 
housewife  shall  have  studied  the  mys- 
teries of  fluctuating  values  in  connection 
with  capitalistic  accountancy. 

Small  articles  of  value,  if  not  kept  in  a 
safe-deposit  vault  or  under  lock  and  key, 

83 


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HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

especially  silverware,  ought  to  be  care- 
fully noted  in  such  a  list  and  compared 
with  the  list  frequently,  as  one  of  the 
principal  uses  of  a  methodically  arranged 
and  conservatively  priced  inventory  of 
household  effects  is  as  an  insurance  record 
in  case  of  loss  by  fire. 

How  a  catalogue  of  household  goods 
appeared  in  the  olden  time  may  be  seen 
from  a  few  conservative  lines  in  a  long 
* '  Inventory  of  the  Goodes  belongyng  to 
the  Kynges  Grace  by  the  forfettoure  of 
the  Lady  Hungerford,'*  who  was  attaint- 
ed in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VHI. : 

Item,  a  flowre  of  golde,  fulle  of 
sparkes  of  dyamondes  set  abowte 
with  perles,  and  the  Holy  Gost  in 
the  mydste  of  yt. 

Item,  a  table  of  golde  with  the 
pyktor  of  Seynt  Cristofer  in  hym. 

84 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

Item,  a  harte  of  golde  inhand  with 
a  wyd  chene,  inameled  with  white  and 

blewe. 

Item,  a  gret  broiche  of  golde  with  a 
man  and  a  woman  in  hym,  the  valure 
iiij  pounde iiij  ^^. 

Item,  ij  broches  of  golde  with  the 
pykter  of  Seynt  Kateren  in  them,  the 
value  of  them  v  marcs v  marc. 

Item,  XXXV  payre  of  aglettes  of 
golde,  which  coste iiij^'  xiij^  iiij^. 

The  following  inventory  of  the  house- 
hold effects  of  a  young  couple  living  in 
comfort  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  New 
York  is  fairly  representative.  The  fur- 
nace and  ranges  are  fixtures ;  therefore  no 
account  is  taken  of  heating  apparatus. 
Wearing  apparel,  books,  pictures,  a  sew- 
ing-machine, and  the  parlor  organ  are 
also  excluded,  in  order  that  the  list  may 
be  suggestive  merely  of  what  is  usually  re- 
quired for  the  furnishing  of  the  house : 

85 


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HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

Sitting  -  room  or  parlor.  —  Carpet,  in- 
grain, thirty  yards,  say  $45 ;  two  roller 
shades,  $4 ;  two  cornices,  $8 ;  lace  curtains 
for  two  windows,  $30;  rep-covered  sofa 
and  two  chairs,  $80 ;  two  reception-chairs, 
$8;  fancy  chair,  $10;  sewing-chair,  $4; 
marble-top  table,  $15.     Total,  $204. 

Dining-room. — Carpet,  ingrain,  thirty 
yards,  say  $30;  two  roller  shades,  $3; 
cornices,  $5  ;  curtains,  $7 ;  extension-table, 
$12;  six  cane-bottom  chairs,  $15;  side- 
board, $30;  cooler,  $2.50;  two  trays,  $2; 
coffee-pot,  $2.50;  egg-boiler,  50c.;  three 
dozen  spoons,  three  sizes,  $20 ;  two  dozen 
forks,  two  sizes,  $15;  dinner  caster,  $8; 
one  dozen  knives,  $5 ;  carving-knife,  with 
steel  sharpener,  $3 ;  mats,  $1 ;  two  bells, 
$1.50;  dinner-set,  china,  134  pieces, 
$27;  tea-set,  china,  forty -four  pieces, 
$7 ;  one  dozen  cut-glass  goblets,  $3 ;  one 
dozen  tumblers,  $1;  two  cut-glass  pre- 

86 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND    INVENTORY 

serve-dishes,  $3 ;  china  fruit-basket,  $1 ; 
glass,  $1 ;  celery -glass,  50c. ;  pitcher,  50c. ; 
molasses-jug,  50c. ;  one  dozen  salts,  50c. 
Total,  $208. 

Bedroom. — Carpet,  thirty  yards,  say 
$30;  two  shades,  cornice,  and  curtains, 
$12;  furniture,  ten  piece;,  $55;  springs, 
$5;  mattress,  hair,  $26;  pillows  and 
bolster,  $12;  pair  blankets,  $12;  two 
spreads,  $6 ;  sheets  and  pillow  -  cases, 
three  sets,  $10;  china  toilet-set,  $7. 
Total,  $175. 

Bedroom,  or  servant's  room.  —  Carpet 
twenty-five  yards,  $25;  window  -  shade, 
$1;  table,  $1.50;  bureau  and  glass,  $8; 
wash-stand,  $2;  two  chairs  and  rocker, 
$4;  bedstead  and  springs,  $9;  mattress, 
$15;  pair  blankets,  $6;  spread  and  com- 
fortable, $4;  pillows  and  bolster,  $8; 
sheets  and  pillow-cases,  three  sets,  $6; 
toilet-set,  $4.     Total,  $93.50. 

87 


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HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 

Hall  and  stairs.  —  Hall  carpet,  $12; 
stair  carpet,  $10 ;  padding,  $3.50 ;  eighteen 
rods,  $6 ;  hat  -  stand  and  umbrella  -  rack, 
$9.     Total,  $40.50. 

Linen.  —  Table  -  cloths,  eight  yards 
damask,  $5 ;  five  yards  fine  damask,  bor- 
dered, $7.50;  two  plain  table-cloths,  $2; 
three  dozen  napkins,  two  qualities,  $7.50; 
three  dozen  common  towels,  $1.50;  one 
dozen  dish-towels,  $1.     Total,  $32.50. 

Kitchen. — Large  and  small  table,  $7; 
five  chairs,  $2.50;  refrigerator,  $12  ;  clock, 
$2.50;  ladder,  $  2 ;  hammer  and  tack- 
hammer,  50C. ;  scales,  $1.25;  clothes- 
basket  and  market-basket,  $2 ;  scuttle, 
$1 ;  covered  slop-pail,  $1 ;  hatchet  and 
screw-driver,  $1 ;  knife-board,  knife-box, 
spoon -basket,  and  can-opener,  $2;  pint 
and  quart  measure,  25c.;  canisters  for 
tea,  coffee,  and  sugar,  $1 ;  nest  of  boxes, 
75c. ;  bread  and  cake  boxes,  $2.50 ;  funnel, 

88 


BUDGET,  VOUCHERS,  AND   INVENTORY 

15c. ;  wash-tubs,  $3 ;  ironing-boards,  $1.25; 
wash  -  board,  25c. ;  clothes  -  pins,  25c. ; 
boiler,  $2 ;  clothes-line,  50c. ;  six  irons  and 
two  stands,  $3.25;  brooms  and  brushes, 
$2;  dust -pan,  25c.;  tea-kettle,  $1;  two 
iron  pots,  $3;  preserve  -  kettle,  $1.50; 
saucepans,  $2 ;  frying-pans,  $1 ;  dish-pans, 
$2;  tin  pans,  various  sizes,  $3;  earthen 
pans,  $1 ;  bowls,  $1 ;  pudding-dishes,  50c. ; 
griddle,  soapstone,  $1.50;  chopping-knife 
and  board  and  bowl,  $1.50;  rolling-pin 
and  kneading  board  and  bowl,  $1.25; 
cutters,  25c. ;  coffee-pot,  75c. ;  dipper  and 
skimmer,  40c.;  two  pails,  50c.;  three 
sieves,  $1.25;  masher,  loc. ;  dredgers, 
40c.;  egg-beater  and  cake -turner,  30c.; 
pie-plates,  50c. ;  patty-pans,  50c. ;  lemon- 
squeezer,  20c. ;  graters,  50c. ;  gridiron, 
50c. ;  colander,  50c. ;  jelly  -  mould,  50c. ; 
salt-box,  30c. ;  feather  duster,  $1.  Total, 
$82.95. 

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HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

Recapitulation. —  Sitting  -  room,  $204 ; 
dining-room,  $208;  bedroom,  $175;  bed- 
room or  servant's  room,  $93.50;  hall  and 
stairs,  $40.50;  linen,  $32.50;  kitchen, 
$82.95.     Total,  $836.45. 


ill! 


VI 


THE   BANK   ACCOUNT 


IT  has  been  already  remarked  that  if 
all  the  household  money  were  passed 
through  the  bank,  the  bank  check-book 
might  be  used  as  a  cash-book ;  but  such 
a  proceeding  is  neither  desirable  nor  nec- 
essary in  view  of  the  simple  accountancy 
of  the  journal-ledger,  in  which  the  cash- 
book  is  a  component  part  of  a  tabular 
system  fully  controlling  all  the  finances 
of  the  matron. 

To  say  that  accountancy  is  able,  upon 
occasion,  to  adapt  itself  to  all  the  circum- 
stances and  exigencies  of  place  and  time ; 
that  it  can  utilize,  and  has  utilized,  for 
its  own  scientific  ends,  the  check  -  book, 

91 


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HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

the  voucher,  the  wooden  tally  of  the  old 
exchequer,  the  fringe  -  record  of  ancient 
America,  the  terra-cotta  book  of  the  far- 
thest antiquity  of  the  Orient,  and  a  thou- 
sand other  interesting  appliances,  is  but 
to  emphasize  the  vitality,  the  wonderful 
flexibility,  and  the  vast  importance  of 
the  science  of  accotmtancy  itself. 

The  modem  bank,  by  means  of  the 
check-book  given  to  its  depositors,  will 
act  for  them  without  salary,  as  a  cashier. 
That  is  to  say,  it  will  not  only  become  the 
depository  of  the  money  of  the  household, 
but  will,  to  whatever  extent  required, 
make  the  payments  of  the  establishment. 
And  these  payments  can  all  be  made 
direct  to  the  creditors  of  the  housewife, 
or  a  part  can  be  handed  back  to  her  by 
the  bank  to  be  dealt  out  by  herself  as 
petty  cash.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that 
banking,  for  the  requirements  of  any  con- 

92 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 


siderable  domestic  establishment,  is  a  con- 
venient and  very  accommodating  institu- 
tion. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  frequent 
inconvenience  of  this  double  handling  of 
petty  cash  will  show  that  the  turning  of  a 
check-book  into  a  cash-book,  because  of  a 
cast-iron  rule  that  all  money  must  go 
through  the  bank,  is  an  accotmting  con- 
trivance inferior  in  every  way  to  an  in- 
dependent, comprehensive,  and  scientific 
system  of  household  accountancy. 

The  possession  of  a  considerable 
amoimt  of  cash  imposes  upon  the  house- 
wife the  consideration  of  two  distinct 
questions.  If  the  money  is  a  surplus 
above  the  requirements  of  the  household, 
the  question  is  one  of  investment.  She 
is  a  capitalist ;  and  the  moment  her  cap- 
ital is  put  in  the  way  of  becoming  itself 
productive,  her  accountancy  takes  on  a 

93 


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HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

feature  more  than  that  of  mere  household 
accounting.  But  the  handhng  of  money 
in  the  affairs  of  a  more  or  less  extensive 
domestic  establishment  is  a  matter  for 
the  consideration  of  the  housewife  as  such ; 
the  question  here  is  purely  one  of  house- 
hold administration.  In  any  case,  the 
regular  bank  of  deposit  offers  her  its  ser- 
vices, exactly  as  it  offers  them  to  the  man 
of  business. 

The  bank  will  pay  any  bill  in  answer  to 
her  order  by  check,  and  will  see  that  the 
amount  paid  is  exact  and  that  it  is  paid 
only  to  the  proper  party.  Thus  she  will 
avoid  the  inconvenience  and  risk  attend- 
ing the  possession  of  a  large  amoimt  of 
loose  cash.  She  cannot  be  robbed;  she 
need  not  run  to  the  savings-bank  for  the 
amount ;  and  she  is  not  afraid  that  she  has 
miscounted,  or  that  perhaps  her  money 
is  counterfeit.     If  she  desires   to   send 

94 


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THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 


money  by  mail,  or  by  the  hands  of  a 
messenger,  she  may  send  a  check  so  made 
out  that  it  is  worthless  without  proper 
indorsement.  Her  checks,  also,  after 
payment,  are  returned  to  her  by  the 
bank,  and  are  perfect  receipts.  By 
means  of  her  bank,  also,  she  may  have 
upon  her  person  a  check  representing  cash 
to  herself,  but  worthless  to  any  other  if 
lost  or  stolen.  Through  her  bank  she  also 
collects  the  checks  of  others,  and  cashes 
the  coupons  of  such  bonds  as  may  be 
in  her  possession. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a 
wide  difference  between  a  bank  and  a 
savings  -  bank.  The  savings  -  bank  is  a 
quasi-benevolent  institution,  existing  for 
the  encouragement  of  the  habit  of  sav- 
ing. It  pays  interest  on  deposit,  refunds 
money  only  to  depositors  who  present 
their  pass-books,  and  knows  nothing  of 

95 


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HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

the  check  system.  The  deposit  of  money 
in  a  savings-bank  is  therefore  an  invest- 
ment, and  its  consideration  does  not  He 
within  the  field  of  household  administra- 
tion. 

The  bank,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  busi- 
ness convenience;  and  it  is  because  of 
the  value  of  the  service  rendered  by  it 
in  permitting  the  depositor  to  draw  or 
transfer  her  money  by  check  at  any  time, 
and  in  any  amount  within  her  existing 
balance,  that  the  money  is  left  with  the 
bank  for  safe-keeping.  Certain  other  in- 
stitutions, known  generally  as  loan  and 
trust  companies,  add  to  their  other  busi- 
ness functions  those  of  the  bank,  and 
allow  a  conservative  rate  of  interest  on 
deposits.  But  to  the  housewife,  the  dis- 
tinction is  very  important  between  the 
various  enterprises  which  offer  opportu- 
nities for  the  investment  of  her  surplus 

96 


THE    BANK   ACCOUNT 


capital  and  the  bank  which  will  act  as  her 
cashier  in  handling  the  income  and  outgo 
of  her  domestic  establishment. 

The  bank  finds  a  profit  in  rendering  this 
service  and  thus  attracting  deposits,  be- 
cause it  has  been  found  that  the  sum 
total  of  the  money  of  depositors  on  hand 
from  day  to  day  will  generally  be  about 
twenty  times  the  amount  called  for  by 
check;  that  is,  that  depositors,  at  any 
one  moment,  are  using  only,  say,  about 
five  per  cent,  of  their  money,  so  that  the 
bank,  by  careful  management,  can  itself 
have  the  temporary  use  of  nearly  the 
whole  amount. 

Other  sources  of  profit  to  the  bank  are : 
the  use  of  its  own  capital,  of  its  own  ac- 
cumulated profits,  and  of  its  own  notes. 
Its  debts  may  be  said  to  consist  of  what 
it  owes  to  the  depositors  who  leave  their 
money  in  its  keeping,  to  the  stockholders 
7  97 


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!*■ 


H 


*:  ^■gt.'aLfrMii:Vij..>  M3n>ii".it    .8-  1-^ 


I 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

who  furnish  its  capital,  to  the  individual 
creditors  from  whom  it  has  borrowed  as  a 
business  organization,  and  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  general  public  who  are  us- 
ing its  circulating  notes.  To  meet  these 
debts,  it  usually  has  outstanding  loans 
made  on  short  time  to  the  active  busi- 
ness men  who  are  transacting  their  af- 
fairs many  miles  apart  on  the  credit  sys- 
tem; securities  in  the  way  of  stock  and 
mortgage  held  as  investments;  real  es- 
tate that  may  have  been  acquired ;  debts 
due  from  other  banks;  and  cash  either 
in  hand  or  readily  collectable  by  check. 
Any  surplus,  of  course,  is  the  profit  of  the 
bank;  and  it  must  be  remembered,  also, 
that  the  known  character  of  a  bank  for 
careful,  conservative,  and  upright  dealing 
constitutes  in  itself  a  moral  security  upon 
which  the  housewife  may  safely  rely  for 
assistance  in  her  financial  administration. 

98 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

Banks  in  the  United  States  are  of  three 
general  kinds :  private.  State,  and  nation- 
al, organized  respectively  as  firms  or  indi- 
vidual dealers,  as  institutions  doing  busi- 
ness under  State  authority,  or  under  the 
laws  of  the  general  government  with  ex- 
clusive authority  to  issue  bank-notes,  the 
notes  being  secured  by  national  bonds  de- 
posited with  the  Treasurer  of  the  United 
States.  These  distinctions,  however,  are 
not  of  as  great  weight  as  might  be  sup- 
posed in  deciding  the  selection  of  a  bank 
in  which  to  deposit  the  money  of  the 
household.  What  the  matron  of  any  con- 
siderable establishment  needs  is  banking 
accommodation ;  and  this  being  available, 
and  the  question  of  financial  soundness 
being  disposed  of,  the  rest  will  be  settled 
by  local  convenience  and  personal  pref- 
erence. 

The  bank,  at  first  view,  has  the  ap- 

99 


■>—        -    •Me^-l 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD  ACCOUNTS 

pearance  of  an  extensive  accounting  in- 
stitution ;  and  from  this  point  the  house- 
wife begins  to  understand  that  the  jour- 
nal-ledger of  her  own  establishment  is 
part  of  one  universal  system  of  financial 
accountancy.  All  the  money  coming  into 
her  household  monthly  or  weekly  has 
been  drawn,  doubtless,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, from  this  or  other  banks ;  and  all, 
or  nearly  all,  that  she  has  laid  out  for 
its  support  has  found  its  way  back  into 
some  bank.  And  thus,  time  and  again, 
the  books  of  the  bank  have  already  re- 
corded the  income  and  outgo  of  this 
floating  capital.  Her  business  here  will 
be  with  a  concern  organized  for  profit,  but 
conducted,  under  severe  legal  restrictions, 
in  the  interest  of  the  entire  world  of  af- 
fairs. Her  money  will  be  in  the  hands 
of  a  board  of  directors  and  of  a  staff  of 
officers   and   assistants   consisting,   with 

ICO 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

more  or  less  variation,  of  a  president,  a 
vice-president,  a  cashier,  an  assistant- 
cashier,  a  chief  clerk,  a  country  book- 
keeper, a  dealers'  book-keeper,  several 
ledger-keepers,  a  discount  clerk,  a  note 
teller,  a  receiving  teller,  a  paying  teller, 
and  a  general  book  -  keeper.  Her  per- 
sonal dealings,  ordinarily,  will  be  with 
the  president  and  cashier,  or  their  im- 
mediate representatives,  and,  in  the 
routine  of  business,  with  the  receiving 
and  paying  tellers  and  a  certain  book- 
keeper. 

Upon  her  first  introduction,  she  will  be 
asked  to  sign  her  name  in  a  special  rec- 
ord for  identification;  and  having  been 
then  supplied  with  a  number  of  de- 
posit tickets,  a  pass-book,  and  a  book 
of  blank  checks,  she  hands  in  her  first 
deposit  to  the  receiving  teller.  There- 
after, if  she  would  rather  transact  her 

lOI 


m 


HOW   TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

business  by  messenger,  she  will  have 
little  occasion  to  visit  the  bank  in  per- 
son. 

Her  signature  will  be  kept  either  in  a 
book  of  signatures  or  in  a  cabinet  of 
signature  cards.  It  should  contain  her 
first  and  last  names  in  full.  Prefixed  or 
suffixed  words  and  abbreviations  are  gen- 
erally objectionable,  as  well  as  the  use  of 
the  first  name  of  the  husband.  Thus,  her 
signature  should  be  *'Mary  Smith,"  or 
**  Mary  A.  Smith,"  not''  Mrs.  Mary  Smith," 
or  "Mrs.  John  Smith,"  or  "Mary  Smith, 
M. D. "  This  rule,  of  course,  is  not  absolute, 
and  is  not  without  necessary  exception.  If 
Mary  A.  Smith,  for  example,  is  acting  for 
another,  she  must  add  the  distinguishing 
title,  as  "Agent,"  "Attorney,"  "Treas- 
urer," "  Trustee,"  and  the  like,  to  her  own 
name.  It  is  upon  comparison  with  her 
signature  as  kept  upon  record,  and  with 

I02 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

which  the  paying  teller  quickly  becomes 
familiar,  that  her  checks  are  honored  by 
the  bank.  If  transactions  are  extensive, 
or  if  the  housewife  has  reason  to  believe 
that  her  signature  may  be  counterfeited, 
she  may  follow  the  rule  of  certain  finan- 
ciers and  adopt  some  slight  peculiarity 
in  the  bank  signature,  to  be  known  only 
to  herself,  and  not  used  in  general  cor- 
respondence. 

The  deposit  ticket,  which  she  herself 
or  her  messenger  fills  out  and  hands  in 
with  each  deposit,  is  a  small  printed 
blank  form,  ruled  for  dollars  and  cents, 
and  worded  for  amounts  in  "  specie,  bills, 
checks,"  or,  sometimes,  ''gold,  silver, 
bills,  checks,"  and  often  having  also  a 
special  column  for  out-of-town  checks. 
The  following  is  the  usual  form  of  a  de- 
posit ticket,  and  shows  how  it  should  be 
filled  out: 

103 


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fi  -» 


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«.tf  A    ^.  tJHUn,",       1.  .  —   ---^  *  ^^u'^iH^jjit.JttA.r.a.T    .    JMt"  > 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 


DEPOSITED  BY 

IN    THE 

JFrattklm  ^quar?  Natuinal  Sank 

New  York,.  .  / 190 


Specie 

Bills 

Checks 


■■  \ 


25 

15 


40 


104 


:1 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

The  depositor's  name,  with  the  date,  is 
written  upon  the  ticket ;  the  coin  is  count- 
ed and  entered  in  the  doUars-and-cents 
columns ;  then  the  bills ;  then  the  amount 
of  each  check,  if  any  checks  are  to  be  de- 
posited. The  whole  is  then  footed  up,  and 
deposit,  deposit  ticket,  and  pass-book  are 
handed  together  to  the  receiving  teller. 
He  counts  the  deposit,  verifies  the  figures, 
enters  the  total  amount  against  the  bank 
in  the  pass-book,  which  he  hands  back  to 
the  depositor,  the  money  going  into  the 
treasury  and  the  deposit  ticket  into  the 
accounting  department.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  name  of  the  depositor 
written  on  the  deposit  ticket  is  not  nec- 
essarily her  signature;  and,  as  already 
noted,  anybody  whom  she  chooses  to 
send  to  the  bank  can  make  the  deposit. 

A  check  is  any  written  order,  dated 
and   bearing   the   signature   of   the   de- 

105 


■r..-jA«^.A'ta-'  -KiSiai!.^ 


f 

i 


HOW   TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

positor,  directing  the  bank  to  pay  on 
demand  a  specified  sum  to  the  bearer  of 
the  check,  or  to  a  person  named,  or  to 
that  person's  order. 

A  person  to  whose  order  a  check  is 
made  payable  can  collect  the  money 
from  the  bank  itself,  or  can  deposit  it  in 
another  bank  and  have  that  bank  collect 
it  from  the  first  bank,  or  can  sign  it  over 
to  another  person,  and  that  person  can 
collect  it,  or  sign  it  over  still  further,  and 
so  on.  When  the  check  reaches  the  de- 
positor's own  bank,  and  is  paid,  it  is  can- 
celled and  returned  to  the  depositor  when 
her  pass  -  book  is  balanced,  and  becomes 
her  voucher  or  receipt  of  payment.  As 
her  check  may  pass  through  the  hands  of 
others,  so  theirs  may  pass  through  hers, 
and  thus  it  is  that  at  times  her  deposits 
in  the  bank  will  consist  of  checks  as  well 
as  of  cash. 

1 06 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

She  must,  of  course,  have  in  bank  the 
amount  called  for  when  her  check  is  pre- 
sented for  payment,  otherwise  the  bank 
must  refuse  to  honor  the  check,  or  must 
pay  the  amount  out  of  its  own  funds,  in 
which  latter  case  the  bank  would  assume, 
for  the  time,  the  character  rather  of  a 
charitable  institution,  or  a  chivalrous  un- 
dertaking, than  a  true  business  organiza- 
tion. Depositors  are  creditors,  to  whom 
the  bank  is  debtor. 

A  check  may  be  drawn  payable  to 
'*  bearer, ''  in  which  case  the  paying  teller 
will  pay  it  to  the  person  presenting  it, 
unless  some  suspicious  circumstance  may 
seem  to  warrant  an  inquiry  into  the 
genuineness  of  the  check.  Or  it  may  be 
made  payable  to  the  depositor  herself 
by  using  the  word  ''cash''  or  ''myself." 
Or  it  may  specify  by  name  the  person, 
firm,  or  corporation  to  whom  it  is  to  be 

107 


> 


I 


HOW  TO    KEEP    HOUSEHOLD   ACCOUNTS 

paid.  In  all  cases  where  the  payee  is 
named,  the  words  ''or  order/*  or  ''to  the 
order  of/'  will  make  the  check  trans- 
ferable by  indorsement,  and  thus  it  may 
finally  reach  the  bank  by  some  unexpect- 
ed channel. 

Indorsement  is  the  writing  by  the 
payee  of  his  or  her  name  across  the  back 
of  the  check,  either  with  or  without  di- 
rection to  pay  it  to,  or  to  the  order  of, 
another  party.  To  indorse  a  check  in 
the  conventional  way,  hold  it  by  the 
upper  left-hand  comer  and  turn  it  over 
so  that  this  will  still  be  the  upper  left- 
hand  comer,  and  thus  write  across  the 
back  of  the  check,  beginning  the  first  in- 
dorsement about  one-third  the  length  of 
the  check  below  what  is  now  the  top. 
Subsequent  indorsements  are  written  be- 
low in  chronological  order. 

To  indorse  a  check  in  which  the  payee's 

io8 


BACK    OF    CHECK    SIIOWI.VO    ENDORSEMENT 


I  I 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

name  is  made  to  difiEer  from  the  name 
she  uses  at  the  bank,  both  names  must 
be  signed — as,  for  example,  a  check  made 
out  to  "  Mrs.  John  Smith  "  wovild  be  taken 
to  the  bank  with  the  indorsement  "Mrs. 
John  Smith"  followed  by  the  proper  in- 
dorsement ' '  Mary  A.  Smith. ' '  When  the 
depositor  has  given  her  check  to  any 
one,  she  may  still,  if  there  is  reason  for 
so  doing,  instruct  her  bank  not  to  pay  it, 
and  the  request  will,  as  a  rule,  be  respected. 

A  final  safeguard  in  the  interest  of  all 
concerned  is  that  any  specified  person 
to  whom  a  check  ought  to  be  paid  must 
be  known  to  the  bank  or  must  be  "  iden- 
tified" by  somebody  who  is  so  known. 

The  check  may  be  wholly  in  writing; 
it  is  usually,  however,  made  out  on  the 
bank's  own  printed  blank.  These  blanks 
are  furnished  singly,  or  in  packages 
bound  together  into  books  with  a  very 

109 


V-:] 


I 


|i 


1  -r 


t  : 


HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

wide  inner  margin.  This  margin,  known 
as  the  stub,  and  numbered  to  corre- 
spond with  the  accompanying  check,  is 
commonly  ruled  for  dollars  and  cents, 
and  is  filled  out  as  a  memorandum  of 
the  date,  amount,  and  purpose  of  the 
check.  The  stubs,  thus  filled  out,  form 
a  record  of  money  paid  out  through  the 
bank;  and  by  using  their  backs  as  a 
record  also  of  money  deposited  in  the 
bank,  a  sort  of  cash-book  is  obtained, 
which,  in  the  absence  of  any  proper 
domestic  accountancy,  would  be  of  some 
assistance  as  a  book  of  the  household. 
It  is  best  to  have  a  check-book  with  not 
less  than  three  checks  to  a  page.  The 
words  *'or  order''  or  *'to  the  order  of," 
appearing  on  the  printed  form,  are 
erased,  when  not  required,  by  drawing 
the  pen  through  them.  The  accompany- 
ing is  the  usual  form  of  a  blank  check : 

no 


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■if&ii 


i^!§^S0iiM: 


THE  BANK  ACCOUNT 

The  pass  -  book  is  the  depositor's 
voucher;  it  serves  as  a  receipt  for  her 
deposit.  In  form  it  is  a  small  and  very 
simple  account-book,  containing  a  copy 
of  her  account  as  it  stands  in  the  bank's 
own  books.  She  should  not  make  any 
entries  in  the  pass  -  book,  but  should 
merely  present  it  to  the  receiving  teller 
with  each  deposit,  and  should  also  send 
it  to  the  bank  about  the  last  day  of  each 
month,  or  whenever  requested  to  do  so, 
in  order  that  it  may  be  written  up  and 
balanced  to  agree  with  the  bank  ledger. 

When  a  deposit  is  made,  the  receiving 
teller  enters,  on  the  left  or  debit  side  of 
the  pass  -  book,  the  date  and  the  amount 
of  the  deposit  as  by  count  he  finds  it  to 
agree  with  the  deposit  ticket,  sets  his 
own  initial  to  the  entry,  and  hands  back 
the  book  to  the  depositor  or  her  messen- 
ger.    When  the  book  is  left  or  sent  in  to 

III 


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>j*t  ■mH-.-fi'li^i* 


I  > 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

be  balanced,  all  payments  that  have  been 
made  by  the  bank  for  the  depositor  are 
entered  on  the  right  or  credit  side,  and 
the  book  is  returned.  These  payments, 
as  we  have  seen,  have  been  made  upon 
presentation  of  the  depositor's  order  in 
the  form  of  a  check,  and  these  checks  are 
now  cancelled  as  paid  and  are  returned 
to  the  depositor  with  her  pass-book. 

From  all  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
pass-book  should  be  preserved  as  an  im- 
portant document,  and  that  cancelled 
and  returned  checks  should  be  carefully 
examined  and  compared  with  their  stubs 
in  the  check-book. 

It  will  be  found  that  the  balance  as 
shown  by  the  check-book  and  the  balance 
as  shown  by  the  pass-book  will  differ 
by  the  amount  of  checks  that  may  have 
been  issued  by  the  depositor  but  not  yet 
received  at  the  bank ;  and  the  reconciling 

112 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

of  these  will  be  an  easy  task  if .  she  re- 
members, in  her  calculation,  that  the 
total  amount  of  these  outstanding  or  un- 
paid checks,  subtracted  from  the  balance 
as  given  by  the  bank  pass-book,  should 
equal  the  balance  as  shown  by  her  own 
check-book.  To  arrive  at  this  result,  she 
puts  down,  on  the  left-hand  side  of  her 
check -book,  where  the  balance  in  bank 
is  shown,  the  balance  as  given  by  the 
bank  pass-book,  and  deducts  from  it  the 
amount  of  the  outstanding  checks,  noting 
the  number  and  amount  of  each.  This 
should  give  the  true  balance  of  cash 
available,  and  should  agree  with  the 
figures  of  the  check -book.  The  out- 
standing checks  will  have  been  found, 
of  course,  by  the  comparison  of  the  re- 
turned checks  with  their  stubs. 

The  following   is   the  usual   form   of 
pass-book : 

8  113 


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HOW  TO    KEEP  HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

IFratiklm  ^qmrt  Nattntml  Sank 

»♦•  in  account  with 


LEFT-HAND    PAGE    OF    BANK-BOOK 

114 


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THE    BANK   ACCOUNT 


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RIGHT-HAND   PAGE   OF    BANK-BOOK 

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H»i«^*i^w;S'igiF  nw^.«^i 


HOW  TO    KEEP   HOUSEHOLD    ACCOUNTS 

Neither  pass-book  nor  check-book  in- 
terferes in  any  way,  as  help  or  as  hin- 
derance,  with  a  scientific  system  of  domes- 
tic accountancy.  The  pass  -  book  shows 
what  was  in  the  bank  at  the  last  date 
of  balancing.  The  check-book  shows  a 
present  safely  dependable  balance  upon 
which  the  depositor  may  draw. 

Her  bank  account  is  but  another  form, 
in  part  or  in  whole,  of  her  cash  account, 
the  bank  itself  being  only,  as  it  were,  a 
very  convenient  department  of  her  cash- 
drawer.  Cash  in  hand  and  cash  in  bank 
are,  to  her  own  domestic  accountancy, 
one  and  the  same  thing. 

Her  journal-ledger  is  a  component  part 
of  her  own  independent  system  of  ad- 
ministration. It  utilizes,  for  purposes  of 
scientific  interpretation,  all  that  may  be 
read  from  such  financial  and  commercial 
books  and  papers  as  have  come  in  its  way, 

ii6 


ji 


THE    BANK    ACCOUNT 

and  been  incorporated  day  by  day  into 
its  columns.  But  the  end  of  this  inter- 
pretation is  domestic  economy,  and  not 
finance  or  commerce.  While  the  journal- 
ledger  of  the  household  is  essentially  a 
conservator  of  the  public  welfare,  its  pri- 
mary value,  as  a  trusted  domestic,  is  not 
to  those  who  ring  the  door-bell  on  outside 
business,  but  to  its  owner,  the  matron  of 
the  home,  and,  by  reason  of  her  faithful 
domestic  accountancy,  true  mistress  of 
the  situation. 


THE   END 


St?'!*''**'-"  W"  ■Wt  Jli-  ^V  *        s.      , 


By  M.  E.  W.  SHEEWOOD 


AN  EPISTLE  TO  POSTERITY.     Being  Rambling 
Recollections  of  Many  Years  of  My  Life.     With  a 
Photogravure   Portrait.      Crown   8vo,  Cloth,  Orna- 
mental, Uncut  Edges  and  Gilt  Top,  $2  50. 
The  book  may  be  opened  at  any  page  and  the  eye  will  be 
greeted  by  the  name  of  some  figure  of  national  reputation, 
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throws  light  upon  his  or  her  character.     It  is  the  note-book 
of  one  whose  fortune  it  was  to  be  thrown  into  the  company 
of  the  makers  of  history,  and  who  cherished  with  apprecia- 
tion the  most  of  what  she  observed  and  heard  when  in  that 
company. — Philadelphia  Bulletin. 

The  whole  book  is  a  delight.— ^os^on  Advertiser, 
Mrs.  Sherwood  has  had  an  interesting  Ufe,  and  she  has 
made  an  especially  interesting  narrative  of  its  incidents. — 
N.  Y.  Press. 

MANNERS  AND  SOCIAL  USAGES  in  America.  A 
Book  of  Etiquette.  16mo,  Cloth,  $1  25. 
Mrs.  Sherwood's  admirable  little  volume  differs  from  ordi- 
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good  sense  and  a  helpful  spirit.  There  is  nothing  of  pre- 
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what  is  written  on  this  subject.— iV.  F.  Commercial  Advertiser, 

A  TRANSPLANTED  ROSE.    A  Story  of  New  York 
Society.     16mo,  Paper,  50  cents. 

Might  well  be  dedicated  to  society  at  large  and  its  aspirants. 
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HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  Publishers 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

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*  s 


•  "y 


W.  M.  THACKERAY'S  COMPLETE 

WORKS 

BIOGRAPHICAL  EDITION 


This  New  and  Revised  Edition  Comprises  Additional  Ma- 
terial  and  Hitherto  UnpublisTied  Letters,  Sketches,  and 
Drawings,  Derived  from  the  Author's  Original  Manu- 
scripts and  Note-books. 

Edited  by  Mrs.  Anne  Thackeray  Ritchie. 

1.  VANITY  FAIR.  7.  ESMOND,  Etc. 

2.  PENDENNIS.  8.  THE  NEWC0ME8. 

3.  YELLOWPLUSH    9.  CHRISTMAS  BOOKS, 

PAPERS,  Etc.  Etc. 

4.  BARRY  LYNDON,  Etc.  10.  THE  VIRGINIANS. 

5.  SKETCH  BOOKS,  Etc.   11.  PHILIP,  Etc. 

6.  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  12.  DENIS  DUVAL,  Etc. 

"  PUNCH."  13.  MISCELLANIES,  Etc. 

Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  Uncut  Edges  and  Gilt  Tops,$l  75 

per  Volume. 


The  edition  is  one  which  appeals  peculiarly  to  ail  Thack- 
eray lovers. — Philadelphia  Ledger. 

Although  we  are  not  to  have  an  authorized  life  of  Thack- 
eray, we  are  to  have  the  next  best  thing,  in  the  notes  that  his 
daughter^  Mrs.  Richmond  Ritchie,  has  supplied  to  the  bio- 
graphical edition  of  her  father's  work. — Chicago  Tribime, 

The  biographical  introductions,  which  promise  no  little  per- 
sonalia fresh  to  most  readers  or  not  before  collected,  will  to- 
gether invest  this  edition  with  unique  interest  and  give  it  a 
value  which  will  easily  place  it  at  the  head  of  editions  of  the 
great  English  novelist. — Literary  World,  Boston. 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  Publishers 

NEW  YORK  AND   LONDON 

'Any  of  the  above  works  will  he  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid^ 
to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  Canada,  or  Mexico,  on  receipt  of  the  pric$. 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 


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